Sphaerolobium alatum Benth.

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems flattened, not spiny, glabrous; 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, 0.5-1; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 1.2-1.5 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present and persistent. Calyx 5-6.5 mm long, not accrescent, glabrous, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-12.5 mm long, uniformly coloured, yellow, mostly red or brown, with some red or brown spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 7.6-10 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 6.5-7 mm long, not auriculate, keel 6.5-7.6 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.4-0.6 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5.5-6.5 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 7.8-9 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 July, September, October and November. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest, Warren and Esperance IBRA regions.