Eutaxia cuneata

Eutaxia cuneata is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender, upright shrub with red and orange pea-like flowers.

Description
Eutaxia cuneata is an upright shrub densely branched or occasionally sparsely branched, 0.3-1.6 m high and 0.6-1.3 m wide with glabrous, greyish brown to red brown stems. The leaves are arranged opposite, decussate, spreading, 2-17 mm long, upper surface mid green, glabrous, lower surface smooth with a prominent mid-vein, grey-brown, cuneate, apex blunt or with a hard tip. The flowers are borne singly or in pairs in the leaf axils, bracteoles egg-shaped, reddish-brown, 0.6-1.3 mm long, 0.4-0.6 mm wide, smooth, margins and apex with occasional, spreading, straight hairs about 0.1 mm long, pedicels straight, sometimes curved under, and 1.5-4 mm long. The flowers are orange-yellow, standard petal is 2-3 mm long and 7.3-9.6 mm wide, wings 1.5-2.8 mm long, keel 1.5-2.3 mm long, orange-red, straight, oblong shaped, smooth and the apex pointed. Flowering occurs from July to October and the fruit is elliptic shaped, 5-5.2-2 mm long, 6-2.7 mm wide, outer surface with occasional, flattened hairs about 0.2 mm long.

Taxonomy and naming
Eutaxia cuneata was first formally described in 1844 and the description was published in Plantae Preissianae. The specific epithet (cuneata) means "wedge-shaped", usually refers to the leaves.

Distribution and habitat
This pea grows in heath, woodland in a variety of soils near the south coast of Western Australia from Cheyne Beach to Ravensthorpe.