Indigofera petraea Peter G.Wilson & Rowe

Scientific Description

Erect or prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, alternate, continuous with stem, 12-40 mm long, 9-20 mm wide, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 2.5-4.2 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present or absent (flowers sessile), 0.5 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 2.6-3 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 5-5.5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly pink, red or purple, with some pink, red or purple spots, streaks or blotches; claws absent; standard 4.5-5 mm long, hairy at least in part, not auriculate, wings 4-4.8 mm long, not auriculate, keel 5-5.5 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, hairy at least in part. Stamens ten; anthers 0.5-0.6 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen, 4-4.6 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, glabrous; style 4.2-5 mm long, glabrous, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 15-25 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, hairy, with simple hairs, not beaked. Flowers in May, June and August. Occurs in the Eremaean Botanical Province, in the Pilbara and Gascoyne IBRA regions.