Gastrolobium spectabile (Endl.) Crisp

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete or angular, spiny at least in part, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, opposite, continuous with stem, 12-40 mm wide, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 3 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 3.2-4 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 9-10 mm long, not accrescent, glabrous, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 13-16.5 mm long, multicoloured, orange, mostly yellow or green, with some yellow or green spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 13-14.6 mm long, glabrous, auriculate, wings 12.6-14 mm long, auriculate, keel 14-14.5 mm long, not beaked, auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 1-1.5 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 10.6-13.5 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 13-14.2 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 15 mm long, 5 mm wide, stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, glabrous, not beaked. Flowers in September, October and November. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Avon Wheatbelt and Mallee IBRA regions. Conservation Code Priority Three (P3).