Gastrolobium epacridoides Meisn.

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, spiny at least in part, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, whorled, continuous with stem, 10-15 mm long, 7-8 mm wide, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves. Pedicel present, 3 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 4.7-5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribbed; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 10-11.5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow or red, with some yellow or red spots, streaks or blotches; claws absent; standard 9.2-11.2 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 8.5-9 mm long, not auriculate, keel 9-9.5 mm long, not beaked, auriculate or 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), 6.5-9 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, hairy or glandular; style 8.5-9 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 8-9 mm long, 5-6 mm wide, stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, hairy, with simple hairs, not beaked. Flowers in August and September. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Avon Wheatbelt and Jarrah Forest IBRA regions.