Pultenaea dentata, commonly known as clustered bush-pea,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect to low-lying or prostrate, open shrub with elliptic to narrow egg-shaped leaves and dense clusters of yellow, red and purple flowers.
Pultenaea dentata is an erect to low-lying or prostrate, openly-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of and has wiry stems. The leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped or lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long, wide and dished on the upper surface. There are triangular to lance-shaped stipules long at the base of the leaves. The flowers are densely clustered in groups of more than six on the ends of the branchlets, with dark brown, egg-shaped bracts. The sepals are long with three-lobed bracteoles long attached to the base of the sepal tube. The standard petal is bright yellow with red markings, the wings are yellow and the keel is purple with a yellow base. Flowering occurs from October to December and the fruit is a flattened, egg-shaped pod.[2] [3]
Pultenaea dentata was first formally described in 1805 by Jacques Labillardière in Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen.[4] [5] The specific epithet (densifolia) means "toothed".[6]
This pultenaea grows in swampy heath or on the edges of streams in south-eastern, Queensland, on the coast and tablelands of New South Wales, southern Victoria, south-eastern South Australia and in Tasmania where it is widespread and common.[7]