NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE

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Description: Erect subshrub up to 1.2 m tall, usually with a slender main stem. Indumentum of branchlets, petiole, stipules, pedicel, abaxial surfaces of bract and bracteoles and external surface of calyx moderately dense, brown and variably also silvery, grey or blackish, hairs ± straight, appressed antrorse; surface of branchlets with scattered, minute, dark green spots.

Leaves erect to suberect, mostly linear to narrow-linear, 3–11 cm long, 1.2–6 mm wide flat or weakly arched each side of shallowly recessed midrib, base obtuse to acute, margins sometimes very slightly crenate, recurved to revolute, apex rounded to obtuse, rarely acute, mucro short, sometimes recurved; upper surface green, dull to sub-glossy, glabrous, smooth or with slightly sunken veins; lower surface with a sparse white or brown indumentum, hairs straight, appressed, midrib indumentum fairly sparse, dark brown, venation faint. Stipules narrow-ovate to lanceolate, 1–2 mm long. Petiole 2–3.5 mm long.

Inflorescences sessile, mostly 2-flowered. Flowers with narrow-ovate to lanceolate bract, 1.5–2.5 mm long, often recurved, usually overlapping bracteole; bracteoles inserted at base of calyx, lanceolate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, often recurved; indumentum of bract and bracteoles sometimes glabrescent. Calyx 4–6.5 mm long; tube 2–2.5 mm long; upper lip 3–4 mm wide across base, broader apically, apex of lobes rounded, intervening sinus 0.2–0.5 mm deep; lower lip c. 3–4 mm wide across base, lateral lobes 1.5–2.5 mm long, the lower lobe 2–3 mm long. Standard 7–10 mm long, 7–10 mm wide, claw 2–2.5 mm long, limb mauve, flare green-yellow, 2–2.5 mm wide bordered by a zone of deep mauve; wing 6–7.5 mm long, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, claw 2–2.5 mm long; keel 4.5–5 mm long, c. 2 mm wide, claw 2 mm long;

Pod orbicular in profile, 7–10 mm long, 7–10 mm deep, sessile, valves glabrous externally. Seeds ellipsoid to subglobose, c. 3.5–4 mm long, 3 mm wide, dark brown; aril oblong to elliptic, 3–3.5 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, extending c. 50–70% of the curved length of seed.

Herbarium Sheet

Herbarium Sheet

Flowering: Flowers in July–September. Fruit matures in October–December.

Distribution and occurrence: Occurs predominantly in NSW towards the coast, between Newcastle and Nowra; also in south-eastern Queensland in the Blackdown Tableland.

Grows in sands derived from sandstone in forest and woodland.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC, CT, NWS, CWS
Other Australian states: Qld

AVH map***

Although generally conservative in his approach to eastern forms of Hovea, Bentham (1864) maintained H. linearis and H. heterophylla as separate species. The two species are similar in having the same type of indumentum and a similar habit.