Pultenaea linophylla

An erect or prostrate shrub, not overly large, to 1 metre tall and with narrow and wiry spreading branches.

It spreads from just in Queensland in the south-east, through the northern tablelands and coastal inland, to south of Tamworth, with some scattered records closer to the coast to the Taree area, then with some disjunction to Newcastle where it is common down to Sydney, occurring regularly down the coast to the border. It occurs in north-eastern Victoria and south of Traralgon.

It is found mainly in dry sclerophyll woodland and forest as well as heath, on sandstone and granite substrate.

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, linear to elliptic, or wedge-shaped with the apex broadening with two lobes, to 15 mm long and to 4 mm wide; mid to dark green to slightly blue-green; and with dark brown, triangular to lance-shaped stipules to 2 mm long at the base.

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 the flowers are to 10 mm long, arranged in heads of up to 10 or so, at the branch terminals, yellow to orange in colour. The standard is yellow to orange and to 10 mm wide; the wings are yellow to red and the keel is red to purple. Flowering occurs in most months but mainly from September to October.

The fruit of all peas is a pod. In this species, the pod is to 6 mm long, hairy and flattened.