Podolobium ilicifolium

Podolobium ilicifolium, commonly known as prickly shaggy-pea, is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and grows in eastern and southern Australia. The inflorescence is a cluster of yellow or orange pea-like flowers with red markings and shiny green, prickly foliage.

Description
Podolobium ilicifolium is an upright shrub to 3 m high with more or less smooth or soft hairy stems. The leaves are arranged opposite or nearly so, oval to narrowly oval shaped, 2-10 cm long and 10-30 mm wide, upper surface smooth, distinctly veined, shiny, lower surface sometimes with soft hairs, margins lobed with a sharp point, on a petiole about 3 mm long. The inflorescences are borne in leaf axils or at the end of branches on a pedicel 1-3 mm long. The corolla is 8-10 mm long, standard petal yellow or yellowish-orange with a reddish centre, wings yellowish, and the keel is red. Flowering occurs from spring to early summer and the fruit is an oval or oblong pod about 10 mm long and 2-3 mm in diameter, and may be curved or straight.

Taxonomy and naming
Podolobium ilicifolium was first formally described in 1995 by Michael Crisp and Peter Weston and the description was published in Advances in Legume Systematics. The specific epithet (ilicifolium) means "holly leaved ".

Distribution and habitat
Prickly shaggy-pea is a common plant, found in dry or moist sclerophyll forest, often on clay or sandstone based soils in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.