Hovea pannosa

A medium shrub to, 3 metres tall, usually with a narrow spread. The stems have brown or rusty to dark grey hairs.

It is found in NSW and Victoria; south from about Newcastle, extending to the Bathurst and Orange-areas, south through the Blue Mountains and Lake Burragorang into the Southern Highlands. There is then a disjunction in occurrence to west of Batemans Bay and Moruya, with a patchy distribution through Bega and Eden. It is found through north-eastern and central Victoria, to around Ballarat.

It is typically found in sclerophyll woodland and forest on a variety of soils including rhyolite outcrops.

Hovea is a member of the “pea” family. This generally means that leaves are alternate with stipules at the base of the petioles. Hovea have simple and alternate leaves, with stipules present or absent, sometimes caducous which means forming and then falling off quickly.

In this species, leaves are to 9 cm long and to 1.1 cm wide, with the upper surface hairless, smooth or minutely rough.

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 this species, flowers are in paired in leaf axils, mauve to purple, occasionally white, with the standard petal about 1 cm across, with a cream to yellow spot at the base, occurring from Winter to Spring.

The fruit of all peas is a pod. In this species, they are approximately 10 mm by 10 mm wide and densely hairy.