Bossiaea riparia, commonly known as river leafless bossiaea,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect or low-lying shrub with flattened branches, linear young cladodes, leaves mostly reduced to small scales, and yellow and red flowers.
Bossiaea riparia is an erect or low-lying shrub that typically grows to a height of up to, and has flattened winged stems, the cladodes wide. The leaves are reduced to small scales about long. The flowers are arranged singly or in small groups in recesses on the side of the cladodes, each flower long on pedicels long with five or six bracts up to long at the base and bracteoles about long near the middle of the pedicel. The five sepals are long and joined at the base forming a tube, the upper lobes long and wide, the lower lobes shorter and narrower. The standard petal is yellow with a red base and about long, the wings are yellow or brownish-red and wide, and the keel is red and about wide. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a narrow oblong or elliptic pod long.[2] [3] [4] [5]
Bossiaea riparia was first formally described in 1864 by George Bentham in Flora Australiensis from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham.[6] The specific epithet (riparia) means "frequenting the banks of rivers or streams".[7]
River leafless bossiaea grows in woodland and forest south from the Australian Capital Territory and the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales to scattered locations in Victoria and Tasmania.[8]