Gastrolobium villosum Benth.
Crinkle-leaved Poison

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, opposite, continuous with stem, 16-50 mm long, 8-25 mm wide, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 7.5-13 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 1.5-2 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 5.5-7.5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 10.5-12.5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly pink, red or orange, with some pink, red or orange spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 9.5-12 mm long, glabrous, auriculate, wings 7.5-9 mm long, auriculate, keel 6.5-8.5 mm long, not beaked, auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.4-0.7 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 3-5 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 3.5-4 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 9-10 mm long, 6.5-7 mm wide, stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, hairy, with simple hairs, not beaked. Flowers in August, September and October. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains, Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.