Bossiaea grayi

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

• Commonly known as Murrumbidgee bossiaea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the Australian Capital Territory

• It is an erect shrub with flattened, winged, glabrous cladodes, leaves reduced to small scales, and pea-like, yellow and red flowers

Common name:                Murrumbidgee Bossiaea

Conservation status:  Endangered

• Bossiaea grayi is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Capital Territory Government Nature Conservation Act 2014

Etymology:   

• The genus is named in honour of Joseph Hugues Boissieu La Martinière, a botanist on La Pérouse's expedition to Australia

• The specific epithet (grayi) honours the retired taxonomist Max Gray

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are borne on flattened, winged, more or less erect cladodes up to 8 mm wide

• The leaves are reduced to reddish-brown scales, 1.3–2.0 mm long and pressed against the cladode

• The flowers are borne singly at nodes on the cladode, each on a pedicel 1–2 mm long with overlapping, dark brown bracts up to 2.5 mm long, at the base

• The five sepals are 5.0–6.5 mm long and joined at the base forming a tube with more or less equal lobes 1.5–2.5 mm long

• There are also bracteoles but that fall off before the flower opens

• The standard petal is deep yellow with a red base and 9.5–11.0 mm long, the wings yellow with a red base and about 9–10 mm long and the keel is dark red and 9–10 mm long

• Flowering occurs in September and October

Fruit:                         

• An oblong pod 20–29 mm long

Leaves:         

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An erect, rhizome-forming shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1.5 m

Habitat:   

• Woodland on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River and its tributaries

Distribution:                  

• In the Australian Capital Territory

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy 

  • Bossiaea grayi was first formally described in 2009 by Keith Leonard McDougall in the journal Telopea from specimens collected near the Murrumbidgee River, downstream from the Kambah Pool in 1980

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bossiaea_grayi (2024)