Hovea clavata
Hovea clavata, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Queensland, Australia. It is a shrub with very narrowly elliptic, lance-shaped or strap-like leaves, groups of usually two violet-purple flowers and hairy, sessile pods.
Description
Hovea clavata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to, and is covered with coiled, crumpled or straight grey to tan-grey hairs. The leaves are very narrowly elliptic, lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, or strap-like long and wide, the edges turned under, the upper surface with slightly raised veins and hairs along the midrib. There are stipules long at the base of the leaves. Usually two flowers are borne in sessile pairs, each flower on a pedicel long with a bract and egg-shaped to narrowly egg-shaped bracteoles long at the base. The sepals are long, forming a tube long, the upper lip wide. The standard petal is long, violet-purple with a central greenish "flare" in the centre, and the wing wide. Flowering occurs form May to July and the fruit is a hairy, sessile pod.
Taxonomy and naming
Hovea clavata was first formally described in 2001 by Ian R. Thompson and the description was published in Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected by Lawrie Johnson along Five Rocks Road, east of the Byfield-Yeppoon road in 1981. The specific epithet means 'club-shaped'.
Distribution and habitat
This species grows in sandy in heathland in south-eastern Queensland between Shoalwater Bay and Maryborough.
Conservation status
Hovea clavata is listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.