Pultenaea villosa

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Hairy Bush-pea

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:   

• The genus is named in honour of Richard Pulteney, an English surgeon and botanist, who also was the biographer of Linnaeus

• The specific epithet (villosa) means "with long, soft hairs"

Flowers

• The flowers are 5–12 mm long, arranged in small groups near the ends of branches, each flower on a pedicel 1–4 mm ( long

• The sepals are 3.5–11 mm long with bracteoles 3.4–5.3 mm long usually attached to the sepal tube

• The standard petal is yellow to orange with reddish brown lines and 8.2–10.3 mm long, the wings yellow to orange and 8.2–9.2 mm long, and the keel reddish-brown and 7.6–8.7 mm long

• Flowering mainly occurs from August to November 

Fruit:                            

• The fruit is an inflated pod 5–6 mm long

Leaves:         

• The leaves are arranged alternately, narrow elliptic to linear, oblong to club-shaped,

• Mostly 3–10 mm long and 1.5–3.0 mm wide 

• Stipules 1–4 mm long pressed against the stem at the base

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An erect, sometimes prostrate shrub, that typically grows to 0.25–2.5 m high and 3 m wide

• It is with softly-hairy foliage and sometimes with weeping branches

Habitat:   

• Forest, heathland grassland and coastal dunes

Distribution:           

• South-east Queensland and on the coast and Northern Tablelands of NSW

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Pultenaea villosa was first formally described in 1799 by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in the fourth edition of the Species Plantarum

• Use in horticulture

  • This "eggs and bacon" pea is one of the easier pultenaeas to grow in the garden

  • It can be propagated from seed or from cuttings and grown as a specimen plant or in informal hedges, preferring moist soil in a partly sunny position

  • The species is frost hardy and has "attractive" reddish new growth

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pultenaea_villosa (2023)