Chorizema spathulatum

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Chorizema spathulatum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Chorizema
Species:
C. spathulatum
Binomial name
Chorizema spathulatum
Synonyms[1]
  • Callistachys spathulata Meisn.
  • Oxylobium spathulatum (Meisn.) Benth.

Chorizema spathulatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect or low-lying shrub with linear to wedge-shaped or almost oblong leaves, and yellow pea flowers.

Description[edit]

Chorizema spathulatum is an erect or low-lying shrub with glabrous hairy stems. Its leaves are linear to wedge-shaped or almost oblong, 7–35 mm (0.28–1.38 in) long 2–6 mm (0.079–0.236 in) wide and hairy. The flowers are yellow, arranged in racemes on the ends of the branches, each flower on a pedicel 2.0–3.5 mm (0.079–0.138 in) long and hairy with bracteoles at the base but that fall of as the flowers open. The sepals are silky-hairy, about 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) long, the upper two lobes broader. The flowers are yellow, 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) long, the standard petal 9–10 mm (0.35–0.39 in) long, the wings 8.5–10 mm (0.33–0.39 in) long, and the keel 9–10.5 mm (0.35–0.41 in) long. Flowering occurs from October to December and the fruit is a pod 10–11 mm (0.39–0.43 in) long and 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) wide.[2][3]

Taxonomy and naming[edit]

This species was first formally described in 1848 by Carl Meissner who gave it the name Callistachys spathulata in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae.[4][5] In 1992, Joan M. Taylor and Michael Crisp transferred the species to Chorizema as C. spathulatum in Australian Systematic Botany. The specific epithet (spathulatum) means "spoon-shaped", referring to the leaves.[6]

Distribution and habitat[edit]

Chorizema spathulatum usually grows in sandy soil in the Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Chorizema spathulatum". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Chorizema spathulatum". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  3. ^ Bentham, George (1864). Flora Australiensis. Vol. 2. London: Lovell Reeve & Co. p. 18. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  4. ^ "Callistachys spathulata". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  5. ^ Meissner, Carl (1848). Preiss, Johann J.C. (ed.). Plantae preissianae sive enumeratio plantarum quas in australasia occidentali et meridionali-occidentali annis 1838-1841 collegit Ludovicus Preiss. Vol. 2. Hamburg: Sumptibus Meissneri. p. 208.
  6. ^ Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 311. ISBN 9780958034180.