Eutaxia cuneata explained

Eutaxia cuneata is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender, upright shrub with red and orange pea-like flowers.[1]

Description

Eutaxia cuneata is an upright shrub densely branched or occasionally sparsely branched, high and wide with glabrous, greyish brown to red brown stems. The leaves are arranged opposite, decussate, spreading, long, upper surface mid green, glabrous, lower surface smooth with a prominent mid-vein, grey-brown, cuneate, apex blunt or with a hard tip. The flowers are borne singly or in pairs in the leaf axils, bracteoles egg-shaped, reddish-brown, long, wide, smooth, margins and apex with occasional, spreading, straight hairs about long, pedicels straight, sometimes curved under, and long. The flowers are orange-yellow, standard petal is long and wide, wings long, keel long, orange-red, straight, oblong shaped, smooth and the apex pointed. Flowering occurs from July to October and the fruit is elliptic shaped, long, wide, outer surface with occasional, flattened hairs about long.[1]

Taxonomy and naming

Eutaxia cuneata was first formally described in 1844 and the description was published in Plantae Preissianae.[2] [3] The specific epithet (cuneata) means "wedge-shaped", usually refers to the leaves.[4]

Distribution and habitat

This pea grows in heath, woodland in a variety of soils near the south coast of Western Australia from Cheyne Beach to Ravensthorpe.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Wilkins . Carolyn F. . Chappill . Jennifer A. . Henderson . Gemma R. . An account of Eutaxia (Leguminosae: Mirbelieae) with a focus on the Western Australian species . Nuytsia . 2010 . 20 . 115–117 . 13 February 2022.
  2. Web site: Eutaxia cuneata . Australian Plant Name Index . 19 February 2022.
  3. Book: Meisner . Carl . Plantae Preissianae 1(1) . 1844 . 65 . 1 . 19 February 2022.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 3rd. 174.