Aotus phylicoides (F.Muell.) Benth.

Scientific Description

Erect or prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, alternate, not continuous with stem, 5-15 mm long, 2-3.5 mm wide, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with recurved margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 1.5-5 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles absent. Calyx 5-5.8 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-12 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow, red or brown, with some yellow, red or brown spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 7-12 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 8-9.5 mm long, not auriculate, keel 8-10 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 1-1.3 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5.5-9 mm long. Ovary stipitate or sessile or subsessile, hairy or glandular; style 7 mm long, glabrous, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, not beaked. Flowers in August, September, October and November. Occurs in the Eremaean and South-West Botanical Province, in the Yalgoo and Geraldton Sandplains IBRA regions.