Pultenaea aristata

A small shrub, to 40 cm tall by 30 cm wide.

It has a very small natural occurrence in NSW, restricted to the Woronora Plateau, in a small area between Helensburgh, south of Sydney, and Mt Kiera above Wollongong.

It grows in moist and dry sclerophyll woodland, as well as wet heath, on Hawkesbury sandstone.

It is a listed threatened species in the wild.

Pultenaea is a member of the “pea” family. This generally means that leaves are alternate with stipules (leaf-like appendages) at the base of the petioles. Pultenaea spp. however, can sometimes have opposite leaves or leaves in whorls of 3. One of the key features of Pultenaea is that the stipules are fused behind the axillary bud.

In this species, the leaves are alternate, narrow and concave, to 25 mm long and 2 mm wide, with warty structures (tubercules) and unmistakably tipped with a conspicuous awn. There is a pair of stipules (leafy bracts) at the base of each leaf.

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).

Pultenaea spp. sometimes have bracts surrounding the inflorescences, and bracteoles attached to the calyx tube or just below on the pedicels (at different locations in different species). These bracteoles can also have accompanying stipules.

In this species, flowers are yellow, about 12 mm long, with the standard bearing red markings, and with a red keel. Flowers are clustered in heads at the branch tips in groups of 5 to 10, surrounded by bracts. Each flower is attached to a pair of enlarged stipules and are covered with long white hairs.

The fruit of all peas is a pod. In this species, they are oval, approximately 6 mm long and swollen.