Gastrolobium spathulatum Benth.
Poison Bush

Scientific Description

Erect, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, whorled, continuous with stem, 10-25 mm long, 3-10 mm wide, glabrous, flat with flat margins or flat with incurved margins (conduplicate); margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 2-5.2 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 2-4.2 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 4.7-6.5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 7.5-10.5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly red or orange, with some red or orange spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 8-9.5 mm long, glabrous, auriculate, wings 7.2-9 mm long, auriculate, keel 7-9.5 mm long, not beaked, auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.7-1.2 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 5-9.2 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 7-8.5 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in March, August, September and October. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains, Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.