Daviesia sarissa
Daviesia sarissa is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to inland areas of south-western Western Australia. It is a spreading or sprawling, glaucous shrub with scattered, long, rigid, cylindrical, sharply-pointed phyllodes, and orange-yellow and red flowers. Description. "Daviesia sarissa" is a spreading or sprawling, glabrous, glaucous shrub that typically grows up to high and wide. Its phyllodes are scattered, rigid, cylindrical, long, wide and fiercely pointed. The flowers are arranged in a group of three to six in leaf axils on a peduncle about long, the rachis long, each  flower on a pedicel long. The sepals are long and joined at the base, the two upper lobes joined for most of their length, the lower three with lobes about long. The standard petal is broadly elliptic, long, wide, and orange-yellow with a dark red base. The wings are long and red, the keel long and red. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is a triangular pod long. Taxonomy. "Daviesia sarissa" was first formally described in 1995 by Michael Crisp in "Australian Systematic Botany" from specimens he collected near Lake Chidnup, north-west of Ravensthorpe in  1975. The specific epithet ("sarissa") is a word meaning a long Macedonian lance, referring to the leaves. In the same paper, Crisp described two subspecies of "D. sarissa" and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Distribution and habitat. This daviesia grows in heath. Subspecies "redacta" occurs between Southern Cross and Coolgardie in the Coolgardie biogeographic region, and subp. "sarissa" between Pingaring, Newdegate and near Lake King in the Esperance Plains and Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia. Conservation status. "Daviesia sarissa" is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation  and Attractions, but subspecies "redacta" is classified as "Priority Two", meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.