Sphaerolobium gracile Benth.

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, alternate, not continuous with stem, 10-25 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 2-3 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present and persistent. Calyx 3.5-6.5 mm long, not accrescent, glabrous, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 6-8 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow or orange, with some yellow or orange spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 6-7.2 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 5-7 mm long, not auriculate, keel 3.5-5 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 3-3.5 mm long. Ovary stipitate; style 7 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 4-5 mm long, 3.5-5 mm wide, stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, glabrous, not beaked. Flowers in January, September and October. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains and Avon Wheatbelt IBRA regions.