Hovea similis I.Thomps. APNI* Description: Shrub or small tree up to 4 m tall. Indumentum of branchlets, petiole, stipules, pedicel, abaxial surfaces of bract and bracteoles and external surface of calyx dense, brown, silverybrown or grey-brown, hairs curled to straight antrorse with a variable proportion of longer, divergent to almost spreading hairs extending 0.2–0.5 mm beyond understorey.
Leaves lorate to lorate-elliptic, 2.5–8 cm long, 4–9 mm wide (juvenile leaves to 7.5 cm long), flat to weakly arched each side of a moderately recessed midrib, base rounded to acute, margins recurved to slightly revolute, apex rounded to obtuse or rarely acute, mucro short; upper surface green, dull to subglossy, glabrous, venation slightly raised; lower surface with dense orange-brown curled hairs with long white hairs interspersed. Stipules lanceolate, 1.3–1.8 mm long.
Inflorescences 1- to 3-flowered. Flowers with bracts, narrow-ovate to lanceolate, 1.2–2.5 mm long; bracteoles inserted at base of calyx, lanceolate, 1.2–3 mm long apex often recurved, twisted or broken off; calyx 4–5 mm long; tube 2.5–2.7 mm long; upper lip 2.8–3 mm wide across base, apex of lobes acute; lower lip 4–4.5 mm wide across base, lateral lower lobes 1.8–2.4 mm long; standard 7–8 mm long, 8–11 mm wide, claw 2–3 mm long, limb mauve, flare green-yellow, 2 mm wide, bordered by a zone of deep mauve; wing 5–7.5 mm long, 2–3.5 mm wide, claw 1.5–2 mm long; keel 4–5 mm long, 1.8–2.2 mm wide, claw 1.5–2 mm long; style hairy for the first 1–2 mm.
Pod obliquely suborbicular in profile c. 15 mm long, c. 10 mm deep, sessile, external surface hardly obscured by an golden indumentum, hairs curly or fairly straight. Seeds ellipsoid, 5 mm long, 3.5 mm wide, dark-brown, aril oblong, 5 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, extending c. 80% of the curved length of seed.
Flowering: Flowers in August–September. Fruit matures in November–December.
Distribution and occurrence: Occurs in south-eastern Queensland in the McPherson Range near the Queensland–NSW border and in north-eastern NSW as far south as John’s Ri. near Taree. Grows in sand in coastal heath and, further inland, on rhyolite and granite in forest.
NSW subdivisions: NC, NT
Other Australian states: Qld
Text by Louisa Murray Taxon concept: I.R. Thompson (2001) Eastern Australian Hovea (Brongniartieae–Fabaceae). Australian Systematic Botany, Vol 14, pp 81-82.
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