Gompholobium uncinatum explained

Gompholobium uncinatum, commonly known as red wedge pea,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a small, low-lying shrub with trifoliate leaves, the leaflets linear to narrow lance-shaped, and red, or orange-red and yellow-green, pea-like flowers.

Description

Gompholobium uncinatum is an openly-branched, low-lying or sprawling shrub that typically grows to a height of and has pimply stems. The leaves are trifoliate, the leaflets linear to narrow lance-shaped, long and about wide with the edges curved down or rolled under and the tips often with a hooked tip. The flowers are arranged singly or in small groups, each flower on a pedicel long. The sepals are long and the petals are red or orange-red, long, often with yellow-green markings. Flowering occurs in summer and the fruit is a spherical to oval pod long.[2]

Taxonomy and naming

Gompholobium uncinatum was first formally described in 1837 by George Bentham from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham. Bentham's description was published in Commentationes de Leguminosarum Generibus.[3] [4] The specific epithet (uncinatum) means "hooked".[5]

Distribution and habitat

Red wedge pea grows in heathland and forest from south-east Queensland to the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gompholobium uncinatum . Royal Botanic Garden Sydney . 3 September 2021.
  2. Web site: Wood . Betty . Gompholobium uncinatum . Lucid Keys . 3 September 2021.
  3. Web site: Gompholobium uncinatum. APNI. 3 September 2021.
  4. Book: Bentham . George . Commentationes de Leguminosarum Generibus . 1837 . 8 . 3 September 2021.
  5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 331 . 3rd.