Daviesia latifolia



Daviesia latifolia, commonly known as hop bitter-pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a slender, erect, spreading shrub with elliptic, egg-shaped or lance-shaped phyllodes and orange-yellow and maroon flowers in long racemes.

Description
Daviesia latifolia is a slender, erect shrub that typically grows to 1–5 m high and 1.0–1.5 m wide and has arching, glabrous branches. Adult phyllodes are elliptic to egg-shaped or lance-shaped, 20–150 mm long and 5–70 mm wide on a petiole-like base 3–20 mm long. The phyllodes are wavy with scalloped edges and have prominent veins. Juvenile phyllodes are slightly broader.

The flowers are borne in leaf axils along up to three racemes, the peduncle 10–20 mm long, the rachis 25–80 mm long, each flower on a pedicel 1.5–4 mm long. The sepals are 3–5 mm long and joined at the base, the upper two joined for most of their length and the lower three triangular and 0.5–1 mm long. The standard petal is broadly egg-shaped, 6–9 mm long and orange-yellow and maroon with a yellow centre, the wings 5.5–8 mm long and yellow and maroon, and the keel 4.5–5.5 mm long and maroon. Flowering occurs from September to December and the fruit is triangular pod 6.5–11 mm long.

Taxonomy
Daviesia latifolia was first formally described in 1811 by Robert Brown in Aiton's Hortus Kewensis. The specific epithet (latifolia) means "broad-leaved".

Distribution and habitat
Hop bitter-pea grows in forest, often as an understorey plant and occurs at altitudes up to 1800 m, from the Granite Belt of south-eastern Queensland, through the tablelands, western slopes and south coast of New South Wales, to most of Victoria apart, from the north west of the state. It is also common in dry woodlands in Tasmania.

Ecology
This daviesia provides nectar for a range of insects and native birds.

Use in horticulture
The species is useful as an ornamental, as a windbreak and in nitrogen-fixing. It prefers well-drained soil in full sun and is frost tolerant.

Other uses
The stems and phyllodes can be used with alum to produce a fawn dye used as a mordant. The phyllodes also have reputed medicinal properties, and were also substituted as hops to flavour beer. Early European settlers used the leaves as a drug to expel intestinal worms, including hydatid cysts, and also as tonic.