Bossiaea peninsularis

Bossiaea peninsularis is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. It is an erect rhizome-forming, more or less leafless shrub with leaves reduced to small scales, and yellow, red and purplish flowers.

Description

Bossiaea peninsularis is an erect, rhizome-forming shrub that typically grows to a height of up to with more or less glabrous, spreading cladodes wide. The leaves are reduced to scales long and wide. The flowers are borne on a pedicel long with two bract-like scales long, a bract long at the base and bracteoles long on the upper part of the pedicel. The five sepals are long and joined at the base with the two upper lobes about wide and the lower lobes wide. The standard petal is yellow with a red base and up to about long, the wings are purplish and about wide, and the keel is red with a purplish base and about wide. Flowering occurs from August to October and the fruit is a pod.

Taxonomy and naming

Bossiaea peninsularis was first formally described in 2012 by Ian R. Thompson in the journal Muelleria from specimens collected near Karkoo in 2000. The specific epithet means egg-shaped with the widest part above the middle, referring to the shape of the leaves.

Distribution and habitat

This bossiaea grows in mallee woodland on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.