Gompholobium ecostatum


Gompholobium ecostatum, commonly known as dwarf wedge-pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to southern Australia. It is a low-lying to erect shrub with Glossary of [leaf morphology#trifoliate|trifoliate] leaves with linear to lance-shaped leaflets, and apricot-coloured to reddish, sometimes yellow flowers.

Description

Gompholobium ecostatum is a low-lying to erect shrub that typically grows up to a height of up to high and has hairy, wiry stems. The leaves are trifoliate, the leaflets linear to narrow lance-shaped, long and about wide and sessile with the edges rolled under. There are tapering stipules about long at the base of the leaves. The flowers are arranged singly or in pairs in leaf axils, each flower long on a pedicel up to long. The sepals are up to long and glabrous on the outside and the petals are apricot to reddish, sometimes yellow. Flowering occurs from October to March and the fruit is an obliquely oval pod long.

Taxonomy

Gompholobium ecostatum was first formally described in 1965 by Rex Harold Kuchel in the Supplement to J.M.Black's Flora of South Australia . The specific epithet means "without ribs".

Distribution and habitat

Dwarf wedge-pea grows in heathland and woodland in southern Victoria from near Wilsons Promontory to Kangaroo Island in South Australia and inland as far as the Little [Desert National Park]. It also occurs on Flinders Island in Tasmania.

Conservation status

This pea is classified as "endangered" under the Tasmanian Government Threatened Species Protection Act 1995.