Red wedge pea | |
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Gompholobium uncinatum near Newnes | |
Scientific classification
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Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Subfamily: | Faboideae |
Genus: | Gompholobium |
Species: | G. uncinatum
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Binomial name | |
Gompholobium uncinatum | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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Gompholobium uncinatum, commonly known as red wedge pea, [2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a small, low-lying shrub with trifoliate leaves, the leaflets linear to narrow lance-shaped, and red, or orange-red and yellow-green, pea-like flowers.
Gompholobium uncinatum is an openly-branched, low-lying or sprawling shrub that typically grows to a height of 35–90 cm (14–35 in) and has pimply stems. The leaves are trifoliate, the leaflets linear to narrow lance-shaped, 4–12 mm (0.16–0.47 in) long and about 1 mm (0.039 in) wide with the edges curved down or rolled under and the tips often with a hooked tip. The flowers are arranged singly or in small groups, each flower on a pedicel 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) long. The sepals are 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long and the petals are red or orange-red, 7–12 mm (0.28–0.47 in) long, often with yellow-green markings. Flowering occurs in summer and the fruit is a spherical to oval pod 7–10 mm (0.28–0.39 in) long. [2] [3]
Gompholobium uncinatum was first formally described in 1837 by George Bentham from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham. Bentham's description was published in Commentationes de Leguminosarum Generibus. [4] [5] The specific epithet (uncinatum) means "hooked". [6]
Red wedge pea grows in heathland and forest from south-east Queensland to the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. [2] [3]