Daviesia physodes



Daviesia physodes is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to near-coastal areas of south-western Western Australia. It is an open shrub with verically flattened or tapering, sharply-pointed phyllodes, and yellow and pink to red flowers.

Description
Daviesia physodes is an open, glabrous, usually glaucous shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1.8 m. The phyllodes on the lower part of the plant are vertically flattened, wedge-shaped, up to 55 mm long and 10 mm high, those near the ends of the branchlets tapering and sharply pointed, up to 22 mm long and 3 mm wide. The flowers are arranged in groups of two to four on a peduncle about 0.5 mm long, the rachis about 0.5 mm long, each flower on a pedicel 1.5–3 mm long. The sepals are about 1.75 mm long, the upper two lobes joined for most of their length and the lower three about 0.25 mm long. The standard petal is broadly egg-shaped with a notched centre, about 7 mm long and 8 mm wide, yellow with pink tinge. The wings are 5.5–6.0 mm long and pink to red, the keel 7.0–7.5 mm long and pink to red. Flowering occurs from July to November and the fruit is an inflated, triangular pod 11–16 mm long.

Taxonomy and naming
Daviesia physodes was first formally described in 1832 by George Don in his book A General History of Dichlamydeous Plants from an unpublished manuscript by Allan Cunningham. The specific epithet (physodes) means "a pair of bellows", referring to the bladdery fruit of this species.

Distribution and habitat
This bitter-pea grows in open forest or kwongan between Geraldton, Augusta and Narrogin in near-coastal areas of the Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.