Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Pultenaea laxiflora
Common name
A Bush-pea
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, wet heath, and margins of swamps or streams. Western Slopes and ACT. Occasionally on the tablelands.
Notes
Shrub to 1.1 m tall, or prostrate to sprawling. Bark smooth, red to pinkish brown, becoming brown with age. Stems hairy when young. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.3–1.2 cm long, 0.4-1.4 mm wide, cylindrical with a groove on the upper surface, tips blunt and curved down, upper surface (if visible) light green and hairless; lower surface becoming hairless, slightly rough. Flowers 6–9 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Standard petal yellow to red with red streaks, wings yellow to red, keel red to brown or purple. Bracteoles 3-toothed at the tips, papery, inserted at the base of the calyx tube. Flowers in about 3-6 flowered head-like clusters, often leafy. Flowers July to February. Pods sparsely hairy to hairy, smooth.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Pultenaea~laxiflora (accessed 2 February, 2021)
Description partly taken from: Kok, R.P.J. de & West, J.G., (2003) A revision of the genus Pultenaea (Fabaceae) 2. Eastern Australian species with velutinous ovaries and curved upwards leaves. Australian Systematic Botany 16(2): 247-248, Fig. 5
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