Hovea acanthoclada
Hovea acanthoclada, commonly known as thorny hovea, is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is an upright, prickly shrub with small dark green leaves and purple-blue pea flowers in winter and spring. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.
Description
Hovea acanthoclada is an upright or prostrate scrambling, stiff shrub to high, with needle-shaped, hairy stems. The leaves are oblong, whorled, flat, hairy, long and wide, margins toothed or lobed, pedicel long and hairy. The bracteoles long and hairy, calyx long with simple hairs. The corolla colours vary, mostly blue or violet with occasional markings, standard petal long and smooth, wings long, keel long. Flowering occurs from July to October and the fruit is a dry, smooth pod, long and wide.
This species was first described was first formally described in 1853 by Nikolai Turczaninow who gave it the name Daviesia acanthoclada in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou from specimens collected by James Drummond. In 1853, Ferdinand von Mueller transferred the species to Hovea as H. acanthoclada in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. The specific epithet means 'spiny-branched'.
Distribution and habitat
Thorny hovea grows in lateritic soils in the south-west near Ravensthorpe and gravelly locations near Kalgoorlie.