Leptosema tomentosum (Benth.) Crisp

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems flattened, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, alternate, not continuous with stem, 10-27 mm long, 4-5 mm wide, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves, 3-5 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 5-10 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent, 5-6 mm long, hairy, not striate. Calyx 20-25 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 34-36 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow or green, with some yellow or green spots, streaks or blotches; claws absent; standard 28-30 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 28-30 mm long, not auriculate, keel 33-34 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 3.2-3.7 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 30-31 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 33-40 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, flat or compressed, not beaked. Flowers in August, September and October. Occurs in the Eremaean and South-West Botanical Province, in the Yalgoo, Geraldton Sandplains and Avon Wheatbelt IBRA regions.