Daviesia sarissa Crisp (1995: 1233)

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

94. Daviesia sarissa Crisp (1995: 1233) . Type: Western Australia, Eyre, near Lake Chidnup , 29 km NW of Ravensthorpe, 33°21’S, 119°52’E, M. D. Crisp 999, 9 August 1975. Holotype: CBG; isotype: PERTH

Spreading or sprawling shrubs, to 0.5 m high and 0.8 m wide, glabrous, glaucous. Root anatomy unknown. Branchlets and phyllodes very rigid, smooth both fresh and dry, or somewhat wrinkled when dry. Phyllodes scattered, widely spreading (from slightly antrorse to slightly retrorse), terete, tapered gently from base to apex, fiercely pungent, inarticulate, continuous with and resembling branchlets, 10–80 mm long, 1–2 mm diam. at base, smooth when fresh and obscurely wrinkled-striate when dry. Unit inflorescences 1 per axil, racemose or cluster-like, 3–6-flowered; peduncle ca. 1 mm long; rachis 1–3 mm long; barren basal bracts forming an involucre, appressed, sessile, with scarious margins; subtending bracts spreading, clawed, polished golden brown, fused at very base of pedicel, either large (3–5 × 2–3 mm), imbricate, prominently striate and covering inflorescence ( subsp. sarissa ), or smaller (1.5–2 × 0.75–1 mm), obscurely striate and not covering inflorescence ( subsp. redacta ). Pedicels 0.5–3 mm long. Calyx 2.5–3.5 mm long including the ca. 0.75 mm receptacle; lobes subequal, acuminate, paler than body of calyx; upper 2 united closer together than the lower 3, ca. 0.25 mm long; lower three ca. 0.5 mm long. Corolla : standard transversely broadly elliptic, emarginate, somewhat cordate, 5.5–7 × 5.5–6.5 mm including the 1.5 mm claw, adaxially orange-yellow towards margins with a central dark red flare, abaxially red to dark red; wings spathulate, incurved at apex, overlapping to enclose the keel, auriculate, 4–5 × 2.25–2.5 mm including the 1.5 mm claw, red; keel half transversely broadly elliptic, acute, abaxially rugose, auriculate, saccate, 3.5–4.5 × 1.5– 1.75 mm including the 1–1.5 mm claw, red. Stamens strongly dimorphic: inner whorl of 5 with terete filaments and round, versatile anthers with confluent thecae; outer whorl of 5 with compressed filaments and oblong, basifixed, 2-celled anthers; filaments free; vexillary filament adaxially channelled, embracing gynoecium, flared into a pedestal at apex. Pod obliquely shallowly obtriangular, constricted at apex into a blunt beak, slightly turgid, 7–8 × 5–6 mm; upper suture sigmoid; lower suture acute. Seed not seen. ( Fig. 94 ).

Flowering period:— July to September. Fruiting period: Unknown.

Distribution:— Two disjunct areas of occurrence in Western Australia: one from Southern Cross towards Coolgardie, and the other farther south, from Pingaring through Newdegate to south of Lake King.

Affinity:— This species belongs to a natural group related to D. hakeoides , with moderately enlarged, shell-shaped, usually striate bracts which are imbricate and cover the rachis ( Crisp 1982a; 1984), and is similar to D. hakeoides , D. major and D. smithiorum . It differs from all these in having very smooth branchlets and phyllodes, which may be longitudinally wrinkled when dry; the other species have striate branchlets and phyllodes, at least when dry. Moreover, in D. sarissa , the phyllodes are thick (1–2 mm at the base) and mostly spreading at right angles, whereas in the other species, they are thinner (≤ 1.5 mm) and more or less ascending. In D. major , the

A MONOGRAPH OF DAVIESIA

Phytotaxa 300 (1) © 2017 Magnolia Press • 211

phyllodes are sometimes spreading widely; such plants may be distinguished from D. sarissa by their reflexed subtending bracts, larger (11–12 mm broad) standard and longer (12–14 mm), viscid, acute pods.

Figures

FIGURE 94. Daviesia sarissa subsp. sarissa. A. Flowering branchlet. B. Inflorescence. C. Pod. A, B from Crisp 1005; C from Crisp 4995. Drawn by B-J. Osborne. Adapted from Crisp (1995) with permission from CSIRO Publishing.