Gastrolobium tenue G.Chandler & Crisp

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete or angular, spiny at least in part, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, alternate, continuous with stem, 15-45 mm long, 0.8-1.3 mm wide, glabrous, strongly recurved, appearing terete but with one or two grooves below; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 1(-2.6) mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 2-3.7 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 5-6 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-10 mm long, multicoloured, mostly red, orange or purple, with some red, orange or purple spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 8.2-10 mm long, glabrous, auriculate, wings 7.5-9.5 mm long, auriculate, keel 8.2-9.5 mm long, not beaked, auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.7-1 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5.6-8.2 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 9-10.2 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 and October. Occurs in the Eremaean and South-West Botanical Province, in the Coolgardie and Avon Wheatbelt IBRA regions. Conservation Code Priority One (P1).