Sphaerolobium validum R.Butcher

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades absent or apparently so (reduced to scales), simple, alternate, not continuous with stem, glabrous; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 2-2.6 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present and persistent. Calyx 2.2-3.2 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 5-6 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow or red, with some yellow or red spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 6 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 4-4.7 mm long, not auriculate, keel 4-5 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers (0.4-)0.5 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 4.6-5.6 mm long. Ovary stipitate, glabrous; style 5-6.2 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in September. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Mallee and Esperance IBRA regions. Conservation Code Priority Three (P3).