Leptosema aculeatum Crisp

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems flattened, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades absent or apparently so (reduced to scales), alternate, continuous with stem, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, 4.5-6.2; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 2 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent, 4-5 mm long, hairy, not striate. Calyx 22-26 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 25-35 mm long, uniformly coloured, red; claws absent, wings 22-25 mm long, not auriculate, keel 25-30 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 3.5-4.5 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 22-35 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, hairy or glandular; style 35-40 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, flat or compressed, not beaked. Flowers in August and September. Occurs in the Eremaean Botanical Province, in the Murchison, Great Victorian Desert and Coolgardie IBRA regions.