Citation: F. Muell. ex Benth., Fl. Aust. 2:218 (1864).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Woolly' Darling pea.

Description:
A perennial suberect shrub with stout somewhat pithy stems often exceeding 40 cm (sometimes to 1 m) in length, usually more than 3 mm thick basally; indumentum of densely tomentose white or creamy spreading more or less woolly hairs all over; leaves 7-15 cm long, with numerous (to 31) leaflets; leaflets oblong, obovate to rotund, 4-16 X 3-9 mm, the apex rounded or shortly notched, densely tomentose on both sides when young, later glabrescent above; stipules ovate- to lanceolate-acuminate, 2-4 mm long, tomentose.

Flowers 8-9 mm long, on pedicels c. 2 mm long, numerous (nearly 50), in crowded racemes; peduncles to 25 cm long; bract linear-acute, exceeding the pedicel, finally leathery, woolly outside; bracteoles subulate, c. 1 mm long, villous; calyx 5-7 mm long, densely villous; teeth narrow-triangular, acuminate, longer than the tube; petals red, purplish or blue; standard elliptic, as long as broad, shallowly notched, suddenly contracted into a broad 1-2 mm long claw, with 2 more or less distinct short thickened ridges often converging to form an inverted V above the claw; wings oblong, obtuse, auriculate, over 1.5-2 mm long, on a stout and curved claw; keel obovate-oblong, rather wide, subacute to obtuse, without any pouches or folds, broadly and shallowly auriculate, on a to 3 mm long claw; ovary sessile, ovoid, densely villous-tomentose, to 10-ovulate; style slender, bearded all the way, the hairs near the base long like those on the ovary, shorter finer and dense near the coiled hooked or strongly incurved tip.

Pod sessile, more or less globose, 7-8 x c. 5 mm, suture deeply impressed and forming 2 loculi, woolly-tomentose, usually 2-seeded; seed reniform, c. 2 mm long, olive-green, smooth, shiny.

Image source: fig. 328B in J.P. Jessop and H.R. Toelken Ed. 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 412.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, EA.   N.S.W. (western section). Conservation status: native Flowering time: Aug. — 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