Indigofera occidentalis Peter G.Wilson & Rowe

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, compound, alternate, not continuous with stem, 20-90 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 15-25, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 5-6 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present or absent (flowers sessile), 1.5 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 2.5-4 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-11 mm long, uniformly coloured, purple; claws absent; standard 8-9 mm long, hairy at least in part, not auriculate, wings 7.5-9 mm long, not auriculate, keel 8-10 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, hairy at least in part. Stamens ten; anthers 1 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen, 7-9 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, glabrous; style 9-10 mm long, glabrous, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 18-22 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, hairy, with simple hairs, not beaked. Flowers in January, April, June, August, September and October. Occurs in the Eremaean and South-West Botanical Province, in the Carnarvon, Yalgoo, Murchison, Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains and Avon Wheatbelt IBRA regions.