Daviesia smithiorum
Daviesia smithiorum is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, glabrous, spindly shrub with scattered tapering, needle-shaped phyllodes and yellow-orange and red flowers.
Description
Daviesia smithiorum is an erect, spindly, glabrous and glaucous shrub that typically grows to a height of up to. Its phyllodes are scattered, tapering needle-shaped and sharply pointed with a hooked tip, long and wide at the base. The flowers are arranged in a group of two to four in leaf axils on a peduncle about long, the rachis less than long, each flower on a pedicel long. The sepals are about long and joined at the base, the lobes triangular and about long. The standard petal is broadly elliptic with a notched centre, about long, wide, and yellow-orange with red markings. The wings and keel are about long. Flowering occurs in June and the fruit is a flattened, triangular pod long.
Taxonomy
Daviesia smithiorum was first formally described in 1995 by Michael Crisp in Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected in 1987 by Basil Smith of Manmanning in the Dowerin-Wyalkatchem area. The specific epithet honours Basil and Mary Smith of Manmanning.
Distribution and habitat
This daviesia grows in heath in the Dowerin-Wyalkatchem in the Avon Wheatbelt biogeographic region of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status
Daviesia smithiorum is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.