''Oxylobium cordifolium'', commonly known as the heart-leaved shaggy pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to New South Wales. It is a small, prostrate shrub with long, wiry branches, heart-shaped leaves and orange-red flowers.

Description

''Oxylobium cordifolium'' is a small, spreading shrub to about high with branches up to long and are densely covered with long, soft, straight hairs. The heart-shaped leaves are arranged opposite or whorled, long, wide, margins and apex curved downward, upper surface covered with warty protuberances, underside sparingly hairy. The orange-red flowers are borne at the end of branches in

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s, usually in groups of three, standard petal long,

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s lance-shaped and taper to a point. The soft, oval-shaped seed pod is covered in soft, silky hairs,

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, long and tapering to a point. Flowering occurs from spring to early summer.

Taxonomy

''Oxylobium cordifolium'' was first formally described in 1807 by

Henry Cranke Andrews Henry Cranke Andrews (c. 1759 – 1835, floruit, fl. 1794 – 1830), was an English botanist, botanical artist and engraver. As he always published as Henry C. Andrews, and due to difficulty finding records, the C. was often referred to as Cha ...

and the description was published in ''The Botanist's Repository for New, and Rare Plants''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''cordifolium'') means "heart leaved".

Distribution and habitat

Heart-leaved shaggy pea grows on damp, sandy soils in heath and coastal headlands south of Sydney,

Tumut Tumut () is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the banks of the Tumut River. Tumut sits on the north-west foothills of the Snowy Mountains and is located on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu ...

and Conjola districts.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15539498 cordifolium Fabales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Taxa named by Henry Cranke Andrews Plants described in 1807