Daviesia horrida, commonly known as prickly bitter-pea,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub with rigid, spiny branchlets, narrowly elliptic phyllodes and orange and dark red flowers.
| Prickly bitter-pea | |
|---|---|
| |
| Daviesia horrida near Statham's Quarry, Western Australia | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily: | Faboideae |
| Genus: | Daviesia |
| Species: | D. horrida
|
| Binomial name | |
| Daviesia horrida | |
Description
editDaviesia horrida is a glabrous, spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.5–1.8 mm (0.020–0.071 in) and has rigid, spiny, often leafless branchlets. The phyllodes, when present are narrowly elliptic to linear, 18–130 mm (0.71–5.12 in) long and 1.5–20 mm (0.059–0.787 in) wide. The flowers are borne in a raceme of three to ten flowers in leaf axils on a peduncle about 1 mm (0.039 in) long, the rachis 1–20 mm (0.039–0.787 in) long, each flower on a pedicel 1–7 mm (0.039–0.276 in) long with overlapping bracts about 1.7 mm (0.067 in) long at the base. The sepals are 4.5–5.0 mm (0.18–0.20 in) long and joined at the base with five equal lobes. The standard petal is broadly elliptic, 8–9 mm (0.31–0.35 in) long and orange with a dark red centre, the wings 6.5–7.5 mm (0.26–0.30 in) long and dark red, and the keel 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long and dark red. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is a flattened, triangular and beaked pod 15–18 mm (0.59–0.71 in) long.[3][2]
Taxonomy
editDaviesia horrida was first formally described by Swiss botanist Carl Meissner in Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae in 1844, from an unpublished description by Balthazar Preiss.[4][5] The specific epithet (horrida) means "bristly or prickly".[6]
Distribution and habitat
editPrickly bitter-pea grows in the shrubby understorey of forest in hilly terrain between Bindoon, Busselton and the Pallinup River in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.[2]
References
edit- ^ "Daviesia horrida". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- ^ a b c "Daviesia horrida". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
- ^ Crisp, Michael D.; Cayzer, Lindy; Chandler, Gregory T.; Cook, Lyn G. (2017). "A monograph of Daviesia (Mirbelieae, Faboideae, Fabaceae)". Phytotaxa. 300 (1): 183–185. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.300.1.1.
- ^ "Daviesia horrida". APNI. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- ^ Meissner, Carl; Lehmann, Johann G.C. (1844). Plantae Preissianae. Vol. 1. Hamburg. pp. 54–55. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- ^ Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 219. ISBN 9780958034180.