Daviesia pubigera A.Cunn. ex Bentham (1837a: 11)

Crisp, Michael D., Cayzer, Lindy, Chandler, Gregory T. & Cook, Lyn G., 2017, A monograph of Daviesia (Mirbelieae, Faboideae, Fabaceae), Phytotaxa 300 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Phytotaxa 300 (1) © 2017 Magnolia Press • 141 60. Daviesia pubigera A.Cunn. ex Bentham (1837a: 11) , Crisp (1995: 1226), Crisp (2002: 526). Daviesia umbellulata Smith (1805: 507) var. pubigera (A.Cunn. ex Benth.) Bentham (1864: 75) . Type: ‘In uliginosis Novae Cambriae australis interioris. A. Cunningham (v.s.). Lectotype (Crisp 1995: 1226): Bogy [sic], N. Western interior, New South Wales, A. Cunningham 20, 1826 (W); isolectotype: BM, G (2 sheets), K (annotated ‘Negative no. Kew 915’)

Daviesia recurvata Maiden & Baker (1896: 582) . Type : ‘ Taloobie , Bylong Creek, Goulburn River, N.S.W. (R.T.B.)’ Holotype: CBG.

Open to spreading shrubs, 0.7–2 m high, hirsute on branchlets, scabrous to hirsute on phyllodes. Root anatomy unknown. Branchlets spreading at 45°, terete, ribbed. Phyllodes moderately crowded, divaricate to slightly antrorse, narrowly ovate, apically acuminate and pungent, margins recurved, cuneate to rounded at base, articulate, 5–14 × 1–4.5 mm. Unit inflorescences 1 or 2 per axil, 1-flowered; peduncle 2.5–5 mm long, hispid; barren bracts oblong, keeled, spreading at tips, 0.5–1 mm long; subtending bracts oblong, keeled, spreading at tips, ca. 1 mm long. Pedicels 2–4 mm long. Calyx 3–3.5 mm long including the 0.75–1 mm receptacle; upper 2 lobes united in a truncate emarginate lip, ca. 1.5 mm long; lower 3 lobes triangular, recurved, ca. 1 mm long. Corolla : standard broadly to transversely elliptic, emarginate, slightly auriculate, 5.5–7 × 4–7 mm including the ca. 1.5 mm claw, with 2 thickened calli at the base of the lamina, yellow with a thin red ring surrounding the bilobed yellow centre; wings obovate with a rounded apex, enclosing the apex of the keel, auriculate, 5.5–6.5 × 2.3–2.6 mm including the ca. 1.5 mm claw, red; keel elliptic, acute, auriculate, saccate, 4.5–5 × 2.3–2.5 mm including the ca. 1.5 mm claw, red. Stamens strongly dimorphic: inner whorl of 5 with longer, slender, terete filaments and shorter, versatile anthers with confluent thecae; outer whorl of 5 with shorter, broader, compressed filaments and longer, basifixed, 2-celled anthers; filaments free. Pod obliquely shallowly to very shallowly obtriangular, acute, 8–9 × 6–6.5 mm; upper suture strongly sigmoid; lower suture acute. Seed globose, 4.6–5 mm long, ca. 2.7 mm broad, 1.8–2 mm wide, light brown with black mottling; aril ca. 1.8 mm long. ( Fig. 60 ).

Flowering period:— October to December. Fruiting period: October to December.

Distribution:— New South Wales, mainly along the western slopes from the Queensland border south to Boorowa, which is not far north of Canberra.

Habitat:— Grows in sandy soils over sandstone on low hills or steep rocky slopes, in eucalypt-dominated open forest and heathland, with Acacia and Callitris .

Selected specimens (25 examined):— NEW SOUTH WALES. North-west Slopes: Warialda, 29°32’S, 150°34’E, J. L . Boorman s.n., October 1914 ( NSW 35369 ); Warrumbungle Range , 2.4 km SW of Mt Scabilon, 31°18’S, 149°01’E, M . D. Crisp 3225 & D. Verdon, 3 October 1977 ( BRI, CBG, NSW); south of Woodsreef , 30°25’S, 150°44’E, J. R . Hosking 1230 A & J. J . Bruhl, 11 December 1995 ( CANB, MEL, NSW, NE). Central-west Slopes: Newell Highway , 17.5 km N of Dubbo, 32°07’S, 148°35’E, J. H . Willis s.n., 9 October 1969 ( MEL 0080590 A). Central Tablelands: 4 km from Currant Mtn Gap towards Kelgoola , 32°52’S, 150°13’E, G . Butler 955, 1 October 1979 ( CBG) .

Affinity:— Daviesia pubigera is most likely to be confused with D. filipes , which replaces it in equivalent habitats of the drier slopes of the Great Dividing Range, throughout Queensland. Daviesia filipes differs in having a glabrous peduncle that is shorter than the pedicel(s), being 0–9 mm long. Also, the flowers are a little smaller than in D. pubigera , e.g. the calyx including the stipe-like receptacle is 2.5–3 mm long. Daviesia pubigera also resembles D. villifera , which differs in having broadly ovate phyllodes with a long-acuminate apex (3–7 mm long), and has a beaked, falcate keel. The other species within this group ( D. nova-anglica , D. quoquoversus and D. squarrosa , and occasionally some specimens of D. villifera ) have glabrous phyllode laminas, where D. pubigera is hispid all over the plant. Daviesia squarrosa also differs in having mostly cordate phyllodes, and D. quoquoversus has a distinctly beaked, falcate keel.

Figures

FIGURE 60. Daviesia pubigera. A. Flowering branchlet. B. Inflorescence (1-flowered). C. Pod. A, B from Crisp 3225; C from Boorman s.n. (NSW 35369). Drawn by B-J. Osborne.