Sphaerolobium grandiflorum Benth.

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, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, 1.2-2; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 2 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent. Calyx 6.5-8 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-13.5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow, red or orange, with some yellow, red or orange spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 9-11.5 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 7-8.2 mm long, not auriculate, keel 7.5-7.6 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.5-1 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5-6 mm long. Ovary stipitate, glabrous; style 11-14 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, flattened at apex. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in September, October and November. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Warren and Esperance IBRA regions.