Jacksonia scoparia
Jacksonia scoparia, commonly known as dogwood or winged broom-pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with angled or winged branchlets, leaves usually reduced to scales, cream-coloured to orange-yellow flowers and oblong, hairy pods.
Description
Jacksonia scoparia is a shrub or small tree that typically grows up to high, sometimes up to and has erect or pendulous, strongly angled or winged branches and branchlets. Its grey bark is rough with furrows. Its leaves are reduced to egg-shaped, dark brown scales. The flowers are scattered along the branches on a pedicel long. There are egg-shaped bracteoles long on the pedicels, but are sometimes lost. The floral tube is long and the sepals are membranous, long with lobes long. The petals are yellowish-orange with red markings, the standard petal long, the wings about long, and the keel is long. The stamens have yellowish-green filaments long. Flowering occurs throughout the year, with a peak in spring to early summer, and the fruit is a membranous, oval pod long.Taxonomy
Scottish botanist Robert Brown described dogwood in 1811 in Rees's Cyclopædia, from material sent by John White and George Caley to Kew Garden. The genus name honours George Jackson and the species name is derived from the foliage, which resembles Scotch broom. Jenny Chappill classified it in Group 4 within the genus, along with Jacksonia chappilliae, Jacksonia rhadinoclona and Jacksonia stackhousei —all from eastern Australia.Dogwood Creek in Queensland was named after the profusion of the plant in the area by explorer Ludwig Leichhardt on 23 October 1844 during his expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington.