Dillwynia cinerascens

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Grey Parrot-pea 

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:   

• The name Dillwynia honours Lewis Weston Dillwyn "whose scientific labours respecting the genus Conferva, as well as his knowledge in other abstruse parts of botany, merit such a memorial"

• The specific epithet (cinerascens) means "becoming ash-grey"

Flowers

• The flowers are mostly orange or yellow and arranged in short racemes or corymbs, usually on the ends of branchlets, each flower sessile or on a short peduncle

• There are hairy bracts about 1 mm long and the sepals are about 4 mm (0.16 in) long. The standard petal is 5–8 mm long, the wings shorter and the keel shortest

• Flowering occurs from September to December 

Fruit:                            

• An egg-shaped pod 3–5 mm long and 1.5 mm wide containing smooth seeds

Leaves:         

• The leaves are linear to thread-like, 5–20 mm long and 0.3–0.5 mm wide, sometimes with a few white hairs

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A low-lying to erect, heath-like shrub that grows to a height of 0.3–1.5 m with hairs flattened against its stems

Habitat:   

• Dry forest and woodland 

Distribution:                  

•  Widespread in Victoria but also occurring in NSW south from near Bathurst, in Tasmania and in the far south-east of South Australia

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Dillwynia cinerascens was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in the Botanical Magazine in 1821

  • Brown came across the plant in 1804 growing near the River Derwent in Tasmania

Sources of information:

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