Bossiaea alpina

Bossiaea alpina is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to a small area in south-eastern Victoria, Australia. It is a diffuse shrub with oblong to elliptic leaves and bright yellow flowers arranged singly on the ends of branchlets.

Description

Bossiaea alpina is a diffuse shrub that typically grows to a height of up to about and has hairy stems. The leaves are more or less glabrous, oblong to elliptic, folded lengthwise, long and wide with triangular stipules long at the base. The flowers are arranged singly on the ends of branchlets, and are long on a peduncle long with crowded bracts long. The sepals are about long with oblong to egg-shaped bracteoles long at the base of the sepal tube. The petals are bright yellow, more or less equal in length and the ovary is densely hairy, more or less spherical and about in diameter. Flowering occurs from December to January.

Taxonomy and naming

Bossiaea alpina was first formally described in 2012 by Ian R. Thompson in the journal Muelleria from specimens collected by near Surveyors Creek Camp in 1992. The specific epithet refers to the species' alpine and subalpine habitats.

Distribution and habitat

This bossiaea grows in alpine and subalpine heath and woodland in the southern alps of Victoria, including on Lake Mountain, Mount Buller and in the Howill Plains area.