Dillwynia floribunda

An erect shrub growing to 2.5 metres high with hairy stems.

It has a scattered and large natural distribution, with high concentrations of records in the Greater Sydney area in NSW, extending north-west past Kandos and up to Merriwa, as well as north of Bathurst, through Sydney and the Gosford-Wisemans Ferry-Bucketty area, south through Wollongong to Jervis Bay and Ulladulla (and west of). It is found again with a disjunction, north of Nelson Bay and extends up the coast and hinterland to north of Bundaberg in Queensland.

(There are online records which show that it grows in the western half of Victoria (again with a disjunction); however, these populations have been reclassified as D. sericea).

It generally grows in dry and wet habitats on sandstone, in heath and woodland.

Dillwynia is a member of the “pea” family. This generally means that leaves are alternate with stipules at the base of the petioles. Dillwynia have simple and alternate leaves, with stipules present and minute, or absent. Leaves can be flat, terete or triangular in cross-section and often twisted.

In this species, leaves are crowded along the branches, linear, oval in cross-section, with a longitudinal groove on the upper surface, to 20 mm long by only 1 mm wide, with a half-twist and mostly glabrous.

Flowers are, of course, pea-shaped (a term sometimes used is papilionate), with 5 petals in a fixed arrangement; the main back petal is called the “standard”, two lateral petals called “wings” and two fused petals at the bottom called the “keel” (in which the anthers and one carpel tend to be hidden).

In Dillwynia, flowers are yellow, or red and yellow (or orange/yellow) and are usually arranged singly or in small groups in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets. The upper two of five sepal lobes are joined in a single “lip”. The standard petal is typically wider than high (a useful identification feature), and the keel is the same length as the wings. There are very small leafy bracts present on the common peduncle (which can fall early or be persistent) and bracteoles on flower pedicels (below the calyx).

In this species, flowers are arranged in pairs in leaf axils near the ends of branches but often extending down the branches. The flowers are sessile or on a very short peduncle with bracts 1–2 mm long and shorter bracteoles near the keel. They are yellow with red to brown markings on the standard and keel, with the standard to 12 mm long; and are closely packed; occurring in July to October.

The fruit of all peas is a pod. In this species, they are to 7 mm long, oval to rounded.