Citation: Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. 4:220 (1798).

Derivation: After the Rev. Hugh Davies, Welsh Botanist, 1739-1821.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Bitter-peas.

Description:
Shrubs or undershrubs; leaves replaced by phyllodes, spirally arranged, entire, terete, or lamina flattened horizontally or vertically, sometimes spinescent, sometimes decurrent along the stem or reduced to short prickles or teeth or wanting; stipules minute or wanting.

Flowers pedicellate, usually yellow-orange and red, in axillary racemes, rarely in pedunculate umbels or short clusters, rarely solitary or terminal; bracts at the bases of racemes or pedicels scale-like, sometimes enlarged in fruit; bracteoles wanting; calyx with 5 short equal teeth or 2-lipped when the upper 2 lobes are connate and truncate; petals on a slender claw; standard usually with a dark centre, orbicular or broad, emarginate, about as long as the obovate wings and curved crimson keel; stamens free, rarely slightly cohering; ovary shortly stipitate, glabrous, tapering into a subulate style with a minute terminal stigma, 2-ovulate.

Pod subsessile or stipitate, triangular, upper suture nearly straight, the lower much curved, forming almost a right angle, more or less compressed; seed usually 1, with a large aril.

Distribution:  Endemic in Australia with about 100 species.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: The genus is being revised by Dr M.D. Crisp who assisted with taxonomic and nomenclatural problems.

Key to Species:

1. Phyllode lamina flat horizontally, articulate, pungent or not
2. Phyllodes never pungent
3. Inflorescence a raceme; calyx upper 2 teeth forming a broad, emarginate lip; branchlets squarish; phyllodes greenish	D. leptophylla 7.
3. Inflorescence an umbel (with a rosette of bracts beneath the pedicels); calyx with 5 equal acuminate teeth; branchlets triquetrous, winged; phyllodes glaucescent	D. stricta 9.
2. Phyllodes with an acuminate pungent point
4. Phyllodes broad-cordate (rarely narrow); keel narrow-elliptic, incurred, beaked	D. arenaria 1.
4. Phyllodes narrow-ovate to lanceolate, cuneate; keel triangular, narrowed to the base, obtuse
5. Leaves broadest near the apex, midrib and lateral veins visible; calyx teeth flat, more or less recurved, margins entire; standard broad-obcordate	D. arthropoda 3.
5. Leaves usually broadest at or below the middle, midrib only visible; calyx teeth keeled, incurved, margins fimbriate; standard transverse-elliptic	D. ulicifolia I0.
1. Phyllode lamina flat vertically or terete, articulate or continuous with the stem, pungent, or absent
6. Phyllodes absent or if present terete and few irregularly spaced at the ends of branchlets, perpendicular to and continuous with branchlets; branchlets and phyllode base c. 3 mm diam. (raceme up to 12 mm)	D. benthamii 4.
6. Phyllodes regularly spaced and present along the entire length of the branches, flat or terete, continuous or articulate
7. Phyllodes flat, strongly decurrent by a 3-10 mm broad and long base, usually perpendicular to the branchlets, blue-grey	D. pectinata 8.
7. Phyllodes, if decurrent, scarcely so, terete or flat
8. Phyllodes flat, articulate, subulate or linear-falcate and dilated upwards; phyllodes and branches striate; striation on branches scabridulous	D. asperula 2.
8. Phyllodes terete (rarely slightly compressed); striation if present not scabridulous
9. Phyllodes continuous with the stem, less than 5 mm long, stout, slightly recurved, oblique to the stem; pod c. 10 mm long, inflated	D. brevifolia 5.
9. Phyllodes, articulate, usually more than 10 mm long, quite straight and slender; pod less than 10 mm long, compressed	D. genistifolia 6.

Author: Not yet available