Gastrolobium axillare Meisn.

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, spiny at least in part, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, opposite, not continuous with stem, 20-45 mm long, 5-25 mm wide, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 3-4.5 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 2-3 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 5-5.5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 10.2-11 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow or orange, with some yellow or orange spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 10-11 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 6-8.5 mm long, not auriculate, keel 7-8 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.5-0.6 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5.3-9 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, hairy or glandular; style 6.4-6.7 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in September. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains, Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.