Bossiaea bracteosa, commonly known as mountain leafless bossiaea,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to north-eastern Victoria, Australia. It is a dense shrub that often forms root suckers and has winged branches, winged and lobed cladodes, leaves reduced to small scales, and deep yellow flowers, often with red blotches.
Bossiaea bracteosa is a dense, erect to spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of and often forms root suckers. The branches are flattened and winged, with cladodes wide with lobed edges. The leaves are reduced to broadly egg-shaped scales, long. The flowers are arranged singly, each flower on a pedicel long with overlapping bracts up to about long and bracteoles that fall off as the flower buds develop. The sepals are long and joined at the base with five more or less similar lobes long. The standard petal is bright yellow with faint red marks, and long, the wings and long and the keel dark red and long. Flowering occurs from November to December and the fruit is an oblong pod long.[2] [3] [4]
Bossiaea bracteosa was first formally described in 1864 by George Bentham in Flora Australiensis from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller from specimens he collected in the Australian Alps.[5] The specific epithet (bracteosa) means "having many bracts.[6]
There are five recently described species that were previously included in a wider circumscription of Bossiaea bracteosa:
This bossiaea grows in shallow soil in snowgum woodland at altitudes between in north-eastern Victoria, where it is classed as "rare", although common in some populations.
