Sphaerolobium daviesioides Turcz.
Prickly Globe-pea

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades absent or apparently so (reduced to scales), alternate, continuous with stem, glabrous, with gland-tipped 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, 2-2.5 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present and persistent. Calyx 3.2-4.5 mm long, not accrescent, glabrous, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 6-9 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow, red or orange, with some yellow, red or orange spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 7-8.2 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 7-7.5 mm long, not auriculate, keel 6-8 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.5-0.6 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5-5.5 mm long. Ovary stipitate, glabrous; style 9-10 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), flattened at apex. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in August, September and October. Occurs in the Eremaean and South-West Botanical Province, in the Hampton, Mallee and Esperance IBRA regions.