Pultenaea altissima

Pultenaea altissima, commonly known as tall bush-pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is an erect shrub with spatula-shaped to egg-shaped leaves and yellow flowers in clusters at the ends of branches.

Description

Pultenaea altissima is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of with often drooping, glabrous branches. The leaves are spatula-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide with stipules long at the base. The flowers are borne in clusters in leaf axils at the ends of the branchlets on pedicels long with bracteoles long at the base of the sepals. The sepals are long and mostly glabrous and the standard petal is yellow and long. Flowering occurs from September to October and the fruit is an oval pod long.

Taxonomy and naming

Pultenaea altissima was first formally described in 1864 by George Bentham in Flora Australiensis from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller. The specific epithet means "very tall".

Distribution and habitat

This pultenaea grows in heath and woodland, often near swamps or watercourse, on the tablelands of New South Wales, south-eastern Queensland and the far north-east of Victoria.