Bossiaea spinescens
Bossiaea spinescens is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender, spreading or compact, spiny shrub with oblong to oval leaves and yellow and reddish-brown, pea-like flowers. Description. "Bossiaea spinescens" is a slender, spreading or compact, spiny shrub that typically grows up to high and wide with ridged branchlets and short side-shoots ending in a spiny point. The leaves are oblong to oval, long and wide on a petiole long with stipules long at the base. The flowers are arranged  singly or in small groups, each flower on a hairy pedicel long, with oblong to egg-shaped bracts long at the base, but that usually fall off as the flower opens. There are hairy bracteoles long at the base of the sepals. The five sepals are glabrous and joined at the base, forming a tube long, the two upper lobes long and the lower lobes slightly shorter. The standard petal is orange-yellow with a reddish-brown base and long, the wings are dark red and long, and the keel dark red and long. Flowering occurs from May to October  and the fruit is a flattened pod long. Taxonomy and naming. "Bossiaea spinescens" was first formally described in 1844 by Carl Meissner in Lehmann's "Plantae Preissianae" from specimens collected near York in 1839. The specific epithet ("spinescens") means "somewhat spiny". Distribution and habitat. This bossiaea grows in heathland and woodland, often amongst granite boulders in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Murchison and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia. Conservation status. "Bossiaea spinescens" is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.