Hovea lorata I.Thomps. APNI* 
Description: Shrub up to 3m tall. Indumentum of branchlets, petiole, stipules, pedicel, abaxial surfaces of bract and bracteoles and external surface of calyx dense, brown to grey-brown, often orangebrown at apices of branchlets, stipules, calyx, bract and bracteoles, hairs coiled to curled, sometimes with a proportion of ± straight, divergent hairs interspersed.
Leaves lorate, 2.5–5.5 cm long, 3.5–8.5 mm wide (juvenile leaves to 6.4 cm long, 6–10 mm wide), flat or weakly arched each side of a shallowly recessed midrib, base rounded to obtuse, margins flat to recurved, apex truncate to obtuse, occasionally acute, mucro short; upper surface green, glossy to subglossy, smooth, glabrous except for scattered to dense curled hairs along the midrib, hairs white; lower surface ± completely obscured by a cream, pale tan to orange-tan coiled to curly hairs, midrib hairs dense, orange-brown. Stipules narrow-ovate, 0.5–1 mm long.
Flowers with bracts ovate to narrow-ovate 0.7–1.6 mm long, bract usually not overlapping the bracteoles; bracteoles inserted at base of calyx, ovate to narrow-ovate, 0.8–2 mm long; calyx 3.5–5 mm long; indumentum all of coiled hairs or with straighter weakly appressed hairs forming an overstorey; tube 2.2–2.7 mm long; upper lip 2.2–2.8 mm wide across base, apex of lobes acute; lower lip 3–4 mm wide across base, lateral lobes 1.2–1.8 mm long, apex sometimes acuminate, lower lobe similar in length or slightly longer; standard 6–8.2 mm long, 7–9.7 mm wide, claw 2–2.5 mm long, limb mauve, flare green-yellow, 1.5 mm wide, bordered by a zone of deep mauve; wing 5.7–7.3 mm long, 2–3.3 mm wide, claw 1.5–2 mm long; keel 5–5.6 mm long, 2 mm wide, claw 1.5–2 mm long.
Pod obliquely orbicular in profile, often shortly tapering to base, 10–15 mm long, 8–14 mm deep, sessile, external surface slightly obscured by a scattered to moderately dense, pale to golden short hairs. Seeds ellipsoid to reniform, 4.5–6 mm long, 3.5–4 mm wide, olive or dark brown, aril narrow-ovate, 4.8 mm long, 1.8 mm wide, extending most of the curved length of the seed.
Flowering: Flowers in July–October. Fruit matures in November-December.
Distribution and occurrence: Occurs in south-eastern Queensland from Mt Playfair Station south-east to Brisbane with an outlier in central Queensland at Longreach; also disjunctly in north-eastern NSW in the Royal Range north-west of Gloucester. Grows in sandy soils associated with sandstone or in stony or rocky soils (on serpentinite in NSW) in forest and woodland. Grows in sandy soils associated with sandstone or in stony or rocky soils (on serpentinite in NSW) in forest and woodland.
NSW subdivisions: NC
Other Australian states: Qld
Text by Louisa Murray
Taxon concept: I.R. Thompson (2001) Eastern Australian Hovea (Brongniartieae-Fabaceae). Australian Systematic Botany, Vol 14, pp 65-66.
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
|
