Bossiaea eriocarpa
Bossiaea eriocarpa, commonly known as common brown pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with narrow oblong or linear leaves and yellow and red flowers.
Description
Bossiaea eriocarpa is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and usually has densely hairy branches. The leaves are narrow oblong or linear, long and wide on a petiole long with a stipule long at the base. The leaves are glabrous, the lower surface paler than the upper surface. The flowers are arranged singly or in small groups, each flower on a pedicel long with overlapping, bracts up to long. The sepals are joined at the base forming a tube long, with lobes long, the upper two lobes much broader than the lower three. There are egg-shaped or elliptic bracteoles up to long on the pedicel. The standard petal is yellow with a red base and long, the wings long, the keel red or reddish-purple and long. Flowering occurs from July to November and the fruit is an oblong pod long.
Bossiaea eriocarpa was first formally described in 1837 by George Bentham in Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel from specimens collected near King George Sound. The specific epithet means "wool-fruited".
Distribution and habitat
Common brown pea grows in a range of habitats in near-coastal areas from Zuytdorp Nature Reserve north of Kalbarri to near Albany in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status
Bossiaea eriocarpa is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.