Pultenaea insularis explained

Pultenaea insularis is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It is a spreading to prostrate shrub with wiry branches, elliptic leaves, and yellow and red flowers.

Description

Pultenaea insularis is a spreading to prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has wiry, reddish-green, softly-hairy branches. The leaves are elliptic, long and wide on a petiole about long with triangular stipules long at the base. The flowers are arranged singly near the ends of branches on a peduncle long with two narrow lance-shaped bracteoles long at the base of the sepal tube. The sepal tube is about long, the lower three lobes shorter than the upper two but longer than the tube. The standard petal is yellow with a red base, about long and wide, the wings are bright yellow, about long and wide, and the keel is slightly shorter than the wings. Flowering occurs from November to December and the fruit is an oval pod about long.[1]

Taxonomy and naming

Pultenaea insularis was first formally described in 1995 by Joseph Zvonko Weber in Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens from specimens collected in Beyeria Conservation Park in 1992.[2] The specific epithet (insularis) refers to the type location on Kangaroo Island.

Distribution and habitat

This pultenaea grows in open forest often matted around tree trunks or in high grass and is only known from the eastern end of Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

Notes and References

  1. Weber . Joseph Z. . A new South Australian species of Pultenaea (Fabaceae, Mirbelieae) . Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens . 1995 . 16 . 23–25 . 19 July 2021.
  2. Web site: Pultenaea insularis. APNI. 19 July 2021.