Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Pultenaea pedunculata
Matted bush-pea
Fabaceae
Dry forest, woodland, heath, grassy areas, disturbed sites, and headlands. Sydney area and south almost to Bargo. Coastal south of Bermagui. Tablelands and the western edge of the ranges between Marulan and the Kings Highway.
Prostrate shrub forming mats 1m or more in diameter, or to 0.6 m tall. Roots from the nodes. Leaves with sharp tips. Stems sparsely to moderately hairy. Leaves alternating along the stems, 0.4-1.3 cm long, 0.6-5.2 mm wide, tips pointed and curved down with a needle-shaped point, margins curved down, upper surface hairy on young growth, finally hairless, slightly warty, darker than the lower surface, lower surface with sparse appressed hairs. Flowers 4-9 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, standard petal yellow to orange, sometimes with red markings, wings yellow to orange, keel red to purple. Bracteoles linear, inserted at the base of the calyx tube. Flowers on stalks to 20 mm long, in leafy clusters. Flowers most of the year. Pods densely to sparsely hairy, smooth.
Endangered NSW. Provisions of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.
NSW Department of Environment & Heritage Threatened Species profile with photos: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10716 (accessed 7 January 2021)
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Pultenaea~pedunculata (accessed 7 January 2021)
Description partly taken from: Kok, R.P.J. de & West, J.G., (2004) A revision of the genus Pultenaea (Fabaceae) 3. The eastern species with curved down leaves. Australian Systematic Botany 17(3): 305-306, Fig. 14 (map)
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