Flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, south coast, NSW

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, Photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, ACT

Shrub. Australian Plant Image Index, Photographer John Wrigley, Hattah Lakes National Park, Vic

Common Name

Common Aotus

Family

Fabaceae

Notes

Shrub to 2m tall. Leaves in whorls of 3 or more, opposite each other, or alternating up the stems. Leaves flat, 0.6-2cm long, 1-5mm wide, hairless to sparsely hairy, upper surface more or less warty, margins curved or rolled down, with pointed tips. Flowers pea-shaped, with 5 petals, 2 almost joined together, yellow, with a reddish or orange blotch at the base of the upright petal. Flowers in groups of one to several, the stalks arisng from the bases of the leaves.

Differs from Aotus subspinescens in that the tips of the branches are never spiny, and the stems just below the flowers are covered in dense hairs which obscure the surface.

Description and photo in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 384. This description pre-dates the separation of Aotus subspinescens from this species, and mentions spiny tipped branches, which is incorrect.

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Aotus~ericoides