Gastrolobium acutum Benth.

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems angular, spiny at least in part, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, whorled, continuous with stem, 15-26 mm long, 4-7 mm wide, glabrous, flat with flat margins or flat with incurved margins (conduplicate); margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 2.5-7 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 4-4.8 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous, 2.5-3 mm long, glabrous, not striate. Calyx 5-6.5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 10.5-13.5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow or red, with some yellow or red spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 10-13 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 7.5-11 mm long, not auriculate, keel 6.2-9.5 mm long, not beaked, auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.6-0.7 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 6.4-8.5 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 9-11.5 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 August and September. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains, Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.