Gastrolobium melanopetalum (F.Muell.) G.Chandler & Crisp

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, opposite, continuous with stem, 15-50 mm long, 7-16 mm wide, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves. Pedicel present, 1.5 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 9-10 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 15 mm long, uniformly coloured, purple; claws absent, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 14-15 mm long, not auriculate, keel 14-16 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 1-1.2 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 12-14 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, hairy or glandular; style 14 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 South-West Botanical Province, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest and Warren IBRA regions.