Bossiaea bossiaeoides
Bossiaea bossiaeoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to northern Australia. It is much-branched, glabrous shrub with broadly winged stems, winged and lobed cladodes, leaves reduced to small scales, and yellow flowers, sometimes with orange or red blotches. Description. "Bossiaea bossiaeoides" is a much-branched, glabrous shrub that typically grows to a height of . The stems are broadly winged, with winged cladodes wide that have triangular, sharply-pointed lobes. The leaves are reduced to brown, egg-shaped scales, long. The flowers are arranged singly or in groups of up to  six, each flower on a pedicel long with egg-shaped bracts long and slightly shorter bracteoles at the base. The sepals are joined at the base forming a tube long, the two upper lobes about long and the lower three lobes shorter and narrower. The standard petal is yellow, sometimes tinged with orange or red, and long, the wings long and the keel yellow or orange and long. Flowering occurs from April to August and the fruit is an oblong pod long. Taxonomy. This species was first formally described in 1842 by George Bentham from an unpublished description by Allan  Cunningham who gave it the name "Acacia bossiaeoides" in the "London Journal of Botany". Cunningham's specimens were collected near the mouth of the Liverpool River in the Northern Territory. In 1971, Arthur Bertram Court changed the name to "Bossiaea bossiaeoides" in the journal "Muelleria". The specific epithet ("bossiaeoides") means ""bossiaea"-like", the species having originally been placed in the genus "Acacia". Distribution and habitat. "Bossiaea bossiaeoides" grows in open woodland or low scrub, on sand over sandstone, on dry stony hillside, often in dry stream beds or the banks of watercourses. It is widespread in tropical Australia, from islands off  the coast of north-western Western Australia, through northern Western Australia and the Northern Territory to north-western Queensland. Conservation status. This bossiaea is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife, and as "least concern" under the Northern Territory Government "Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1976" and the Queensland Government "Nature Conservation Act 1992".