Sphaerolobium drummondii Turcz.

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, opposite, not continuous with stem, 4.5-9.5 mm long, 0.3-0.5 mm wide, hairy, with simple hairs, strongly recurved, appearing terete but with one or two grooves below; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 2-3.2 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present and persistent. Calyx 4-4.5 mm long, not accrescent, glabrous, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 7.4-9 mm long, multicoloured, red, mostly yellow or orange, with some yellow or orange spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 8-8.3 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 7-8 mm long, not auriculate, keel 7-7.4 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.5 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5-7 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 8.5-9.7 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in July, August, September, October and November. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains, Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest, Mallee, Warren, Esperance and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.