Citation: Andrews, Bot. Rep. 5:t. 304 (1803).

Synonymy: D. ulicina Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. 9:256 (1808); D. ruscifolia Cunn. ex Benth., Commentat. Legum. Gener. 11 (1837); D. ulicina Smith vat. ruscifolia (Cunn. ex Benth.)J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 296 (1924).

Common name: Gorse bitter-pea.

Description:
Rigid shrub 1-2 m high, the branches more or less angular, glabrous or hirsute with spreading hairs, the smaller branches generally ending in short sometimes brown thorns; phyllode lamina flat in the horizontal plane, ovate-lanceolate to narrow-lanceolate, 10-25 x 1-5 mm, broadest at or below the middle, articulate on the branches, rigid, pungent-pointed, veinless except for the midrib, glabrous or with long stiff hairs all over or on the margins and midrib only, bright-green.

Flowers 4-8 mm long, on pedicels 1-1.5 mm long, in axillary 1-5-flowered racemes shortened into an umbel, with spirally arranged bracts on the peduncle which may be much shortened or none; bract(s) at the base of the peduncle and at the base of the pedicels hooded, oblong, to I mm long, glabrous except for fimbriate margins, persistent; calyx c. 3 mm long including the short obturbinate base of the receptacle, glabrous; teeth subequal, triangular, incurved, more or less shorter than the tube, fimbriate, keeled from the tip to near the base of the calyx, upper 2 slightly connate; standard c. 4 mm long, transverse-elliptic, c. 5 mm across, widely notched, yellow-brown with a dark centre, on a c. 2 mm claw; wings spathulate, shorter, deep-blue distally, long-auriculate, on a distinct yellow claw; keel shorter than the wings, triangular tapering to the base, obtuse, deep-red distally, on a long claw.

Pod shortly stipitate, triangular, 7-8 x c. 4 mm, strongly compressed before shedding the seed, upper suture sigmoid, lower strongly curved, brown, rough, opening distally like a funnel, 1-seeded; seed bean-shaped, c. 2.5 x c. 1.5 mm, rounded, brown, mottled black, smooth, with a conspicuous squarish aril c. 1 mm long.

	Daviesia ulicifolia with twig, legume, seed and flower.
Image source: fig 357k in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Costermans (1981) Native shrubs and trees of south-western Australia, p. 187.

Distribution:    W.Aust.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: July — Nov.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available