Sphaerolobium pulchellum Meisn.

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, whorled, continuous with stem, 2-4.5 mm long, 0.5-0.6 mm wide, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 2-3 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present and persistent, 1.6-2 mm long, glabrous, not striate. Calyx 3-4.5 mm long, not accrescent, glabrous, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 5-8 mm long, uniformly coloured, yellow, mostly pink or purple, with some pink or purple spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 5.5-7.5 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 5.8-7 mm long, not auriculate, keel 5-7 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.3-0.4 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 4.5-4.6 mm long. Ovary stipitate, glabrous; style 6.5-7 mm long, glabrous, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), flattened at apex. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in September and October. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.