Pultenaea tuberculata

A spreading to upright shrub, to 2 metres high, spreading to 1 meter wide, sometimes multi-stemmed, with soft curly hairs on the stems that are obscured by stipules.

It is confined to NSW, with most of its occurrence along the coast, from Newcastle-area, south to Jervis Bay and west of to around Tallong and Morton National Park. There are some very disjunct records on the north coast, near Yamba and Wooli (north-east and south-east of Grafton, very close to the coast), as well as near Moruya and Tuross Head on the south coast.

It is often found in moist and dry heathland, as well as dry sclerophyll woodland and forest on sandstone.

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, leaves are alternate and very clustered/crowded on the stems (overlapping / imbricate), rough-textured with small tubercules, with an almost artificial feel; narrow-elliptic to obovate, to 25 mm long and to 6 mm wide, hairy and with incurved margins; occasionally with sharp points or otherwise blunt; light to mid-green (or somewhat blue-green) (sometimes purplish in some seasons); and with stipules to 7 mm long.

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 about 15 mm long, in dense terminal/sub-terminal heads, surrounded by leaves and stipules, yellow to orange to red-orange; with the standard yellow to red, to 15 mm wide, sometimes with red markings; wings yellow-red and the keel yellow-red; often flowering most of the year.

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