Bossiaea rosmarinifolia


Bossiaea rosmarinifolia, commonly known as Grampians bossiaea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the Grampians in Victoria. It is an erect or spreading shrub with linear leaves and yellow and red flowers.

Description

Bossiaea rosmarinifolia is an erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of, and has cylindrical stems. The leaves are linear, long and wide on a petiole up to long with reddish stipules long at the base. The flowers are arranged singly or in pairs and are long on a thread-like pedicel long with crowded bracts less than long at the base and bracteoles about long near the middle of the pedicel. The five sepals are long and joined at the base forming a tube, the upper lobes long and wide, the lower lobes shorter and much narrower. The standard petal is yellow with a red base and up to long, the wings yellow with red or brownish markings and about wide, and the keel is red and about wide. Flowering occurs from September to October and the fruit is an elliptic pod long.

Taxonomy

Bossiaea rosmarinifolia was first formally described in 1838 by John Lindley in Thomas Mitchell's journal, Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia. The specific epithet means "Rosmarinus-leaved".

Distribution and habitat

Grampians bossiaea grows in open forest in the Grampians National Park.