Dillwynia tenuifolia

Dillwynia tenuifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern New South Wales. It is an erect shrub with linear leaves, and orange-yellow and red flowers.

Description

Dillwynia tenuifolia is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of, its stems covered with short curved hairs. The leaves are linear, glabrous or sometimes hairy near the tip, and long. The flowers are usually arranged singly in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets on a peduncle less than long. There are bracts and bracteoles about long. The sepals are long and the standard petal is orange-yellow and red, long. Flowering mainly occurs from February to March and the fruit is a pod long.

Taxonomy and naming

Dillwynia tenuifolia was first formally described in 1825 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. The specific epithet means "thin-leaved".

Distribution and habitat

This dillwynia grows in forest between the Cumberland Plain, Blue Mountains and Howes Valley on the coast and tablelands of New South Wales.

Conservation status

Dillwynia tenuifolia is listed as "vulnerable: under the New South Wales Government Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, and a population in Kemps Creek is listed as an "endangered population" under the same Act. The main threats to the species and to the threatened population include habitat fragmentation, inappropriate fire regimes, weed invasion and recreational vehicle use.