Bossiaea heterophylla

Bossiaea heterophylla, commonly known as variable bossiaea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a variable shrub with flattened stems, egg-shaped to linear leaves, and yellow and dark red flowers.

Description
Bossiaea heterophylla is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to about 3 m and has flattened, glaucous, more or less glabrous branches 1–3 mm wide. The leaves are arranged in two rows along the stems, variably-shaped, linear to broadly egg-shaped, 10–30 mm long and 1.5–12 mm wide with triangular stipules up to 1 mm long at the base. The flowers are 7–15 mm long and arranged singly along the branches, each flower on a pedicel up to 5 mm long with a few bracts up to 1.5 mm long. The sepals are 4–6 mm long with bracteoles up to 1.5 mm long on the pedicel. The standard petal is yellow-orange with a red back and up to 15 mm long, the wings 1.5–2.5 mm wide and yellow sometimes flushed with pink and the keel is 3–4 mm wide and dark red. Flowering occurs from April to June and the fruit is a flat pod 20–40 mm long.

Taxonomy
Bossiaea heterophylla was first formally described in 1800 by Étienne Pierre Ventenat in his book, Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu connues, cultivées dans le Jardin de J.M. Cels, from specimens grown by Jacques Philippe Martin Cels, in turn grown from material collected from Botany Bay in 1792. The specific epithet (heterophylla) means "unequal-leaved".

Distribution and habitat
Variable bossiaea grows in a variety of habitats, usually in sandy soils and occurs on the coast and nearby tablelands south from Bundaberg in Queensland, through New South Wales to Victoria as far west as Rosedale. It also occurs in two small populations in northern Tasmania.

Conservation status
This bossiaea is listed as "endangered" in Tasmania under the Tasmanian Government Threatened Species Protection Act 1995.