Citation: Benth., Fl. Aust. 2:133 (1864).

Synonymy: P. laxiflora Benth. var. pilosa H.B. Williamson, Proc. R. Soc. Vic. n.s. 33:141 (1921). , Pultenaea filifolia, Pultenaea quadricolor

Common name: Loose-flower bush-pea.

Description:
Slender prostrate shrub with rounded stems to 50 cm long, pubescent with appressed hairs when young; leaves linear-lanceolate or linear-oblanceolate to terete, 4-12 x 0.5-2 mm, mostly tapering into the short wrinkled petiole, concave, channelled or grooved, light-green and glabrous above, darker beneath and slightly tuberculate or minutely pubescent, usually recurved at the summit; stipules triangular, 1.5-2 mm long, midrib distinct, margins scarious, ciliate.

Flowers c. 7 mm long, on 2-6 mm long pubescent peduncles, few (to 6) in terminal clusters or axillary and paired or rarely solitary; bracts rather large, ovate, c. 2 mm long, notched, light-brown, shiny, glabrescent, with ciliate margins; bracteoles attached at the base of the calyx tube or close under it and longer than the tube, linear, c. 3 mm long, green, leaf-like, with 2 scarious lobes or teeth at the base; calyx c. 5 mm long, with stiff hairs or almost villous, lobes acuminate, the lower 3 longer than the tube; standard and wings yellow; keel red; ovary and the lower part of the style villous.

Pod ovoid, 4-5 mm long, flattened laterally, hardly exceeding the calyx, brown, pubescent with flattened white appressed hairs, beaked by the base of the style; seed obliquely cordate, 1.5-2 mm long, dark-brown.

	Pultenaea laxiflora twig, leaves, flower, bracts, legume and seeds.
Image source: fig 365a in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NL, MU, SL, KI, SE.   N.S.W.; Vic. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Sept. — Jan., mostly in Nov.

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

Biology: The 2 varieties formerly recognised overlap in their distribution (in S.Aust.) and intermediate forms were found.

Taxonomic notes: Shows similarities with P. quadricolor which has single axillary flowers without large subtending bracts.

Author: Not yet available