Pultenaea parviflora

An erect shrub to a height of up to 1.5 – 2 metres.

It is endemic to the Cumberland Plain of Western Sydney. It occurs from Windsor to Penrith and east to Erskine Park-area and Dean Park. It extends to Wilberforce and Freemans Reach as well as Pitt Town and Marayla-area.

It grows on shale and alluvial soils, in dry sclerophyll woodland. It is usually found in the Cooks River Castlereagh Ironbark and Shale Gravel Transition forest communities.

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, crowded along stems, cuneate to obovate leaves, to 6 mm long and to 2 mm wide, with stipules about 2 mm long at the base, with the margin curving upwards and the tip turned downwards.

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 to 7 mm long and arranged in clusters near the ends of branchlets; yellow-orange with the standard having red markings; the wings yellow to orange and the keel yellow to red, occurring from August to November.

The fruit of all peas is a pod. In this species, they are to 5 mm long and swollen.