#gompholobium

The genus Gompholobium was first formally described in 1798 by James Edward Smith and means "bolt", "peg", or "nail", and  "capsule" or "pod" referring to shape of the sed capsule - fruit may be oblong to nearly spherical. 

Yet another pea endemic to the south-west corner of Australia - even with the large number of posts coming up, I’ve only covered a fraction of a percent of their sheer diversity down here. As I’ve mentioned on other pea-related posts, they might be so diverse here because the soils are almost uniquely awful, as far as essential minerals go, so being able to produce your own fertilzer using nitrogen-fixing bacteria in your root nodules gives you a huge advantage. 

Anyway - a small shrub up to 5-cm tall, usually growing in lateritic soils across a large swathe of the SW. Others in the genus can be found in all states of Australia.  Flowers from July to December. 

A small riot of spring colour up at Lower Portland, 2007.  Mainly Boronia Ledifolia and Gompholobium Grandiflorum.

An erect spindly shrub a little over 1m tall. Flowering anywhere between August and March. Unsurprisingly, also provided by nurseries, and I don’t blame them - it’s a very handsome pea. Native to the wetter parts of the SW, in sandy soils, sometimes over laterites, on undulating plains and in winter-wet areas.

The genus name is derived from the Greek words gomphos (club, bolt, or peg) and lobos (pod), referring to the inflated or club-shaped seed pods characteristic of the plants - very inflated, in this case. The specific epithet means "furnished with a border", referring to the thickened edge of the leaves.

First formally described in 1811 by Robert Brown.

Widespread in gravelly and granitic soils across the SW corner. In this case, in gravelly granitic soil.

'inflated seedpods, rough or scabrous' - the latter referring to the hairy stems.

An erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 2.3 m, on undulating plains across the SW. Finding it on the slope of Lol Gray, above the breakaway, is perhaps unusual. Finding it in laterite gravel, rather than sand, doubly so.