Grey parrot-pea | |
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Dillwynia cinerascens in Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne | |
Scientific classification
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Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Subfamily: | Faboideae |
Genus: | Dillwynia |
Species: | D. cinerascens
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Binomial name | |
Dillwynia cinerascens |
Dillwynia cinerascens, commonly known as grey parrot-pea, [2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect to low-lying shrub with linear or thread-like leaves and orange or yellow flowers.
Dillwynia cinerascens is a low-lying to erect, heath-like shrub that grows to a height of 0.3–1.5 m (1 ft 0 in – 4 ft 11 in) with hairs flattened against its stems. The leaves are linear to thread-like, 5–20 mm (0.20–0.79 in) long and 0.3–0.5 mm (0.012–0.020 in) wide, sometimes with a few white hairs. The flowers are mostly orange or yellow and arranged in short racemes or corymbs, usually on the ends of branchlets, each flower sessile or on a short peduncle. There are hairy bracts about 1 mm (0.039 in) long and the sepals are about 4 mm (0.16 in) long. The standard petal is 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) long, the wings shorter and the keel shortest. Flowering occurs from September to December and the fruit is an egg-shaped pod 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long and 1.5 mm (0.059 in) wide containing smooth seeds. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Dillwynia cinerascens was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in the Botanical Magazine in 1821. Brown came across the plant in 1804 growing near the River Derwent in Tasmania. [6] [7] The specific epithet (cinerascens) means "becoming ash-grey". [8]
Grey parrot-pea grows in dry forest and woodland and is widespread in Victoria but also occurring in New South Wales south from near Bathurst, in Tasmania and in the far south-east of South Australia. [2] [3] [4] [5]
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