Pultenaea villifera

A spreading to erect shrub, to 2 metres tall by 2 metres wide, with moderately hairy stems described as villous (hairs spreading, open and shaggy).

It is confined to NSW, occurring within the South and Central Coasts and Southern Tablelands subdivisions; south from around Springwood in the Blue Mountains, with a disjunction to Robertson-Jamberoo area, then disjunct again to south of Nowra; with records near Yalwal and Falls Creek and then commonly at Beecroft Peninsula and Jervis Bay, extending south towards Milton; then with more disjunctions through the southern tablelands and south coast area to as far south as west of Eden.

All populations in NSW are var. villifera

Another variety, var. glabrascens occurs on Kangaroo Island (off South Australia).

It grows on coastal sandplain heath and mallee shrubland, as well as dry sclerophyll forest, on sandy soils, often in more sheltered and moist situations.

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, narrow-ovate, flat to concave, to 20 mm long and 5 mm wide, soft to touch but with an aristate tip and a sharp point (prickly), and with incurved margins, dark green in colour, with spreading white hairs; stipules to 6 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 12 mm long, often produced solitarily or in 2s, on short lateral shoots, in leaf axils; bright yellow, to somewhat orange; the standard to 15 mm across, sometimes with red striations; the wings yellow to orange and the keel yellow, sometimes with red markings.

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