Citation: Hook., Curtis's Bot. Mag. 60:t. 3258 (1853).

Synonymy: P. obtusangulum Hook. var. spinulosum J.H. Willis, Muelleria 1:126 (1967).

Common name: Common flat-pea, native holly, eggs and bacon.

Description:
Low spreading shrub; branches wiry, to 1 m long, almost glabrous to densely villous; leaves opposite, shortly pedicellate, broadly triangular, hastate or trilobate to ovate-cordate, pungent apically, the lateral angles pungent or rounded and obtuse, reticulate, 10-30 x 6-30 mm (rarely more), glabrous or minutely scabrid above except when young, underneath glabrous to densely appressed-pubescent; stipules triangular, 2-3 mm long, scarious, multilineate, glabrous.

Flowers 1-3 per axil on very short pedicels completely concealed by imbricate scales and bracts which are glabrous except for the margins which are more or less pubescent; bracteoles below the calyx overlapping the base, ovate-acute, 7-9 x 4-5.5 mm, brown, leathery, glabrous except for the margin; calyx 10-12 mm long, densely clothed with long appressed white hairs; upper 2 teeth enlarged, obovate, sometimes slightly reddish; lower 3 lanceolate, about half the length of the upper, c. 3 mm long and wide, tube short; standard oblong or reniform, 12-14 x 16-20 mm, on a claw 3-4 mm long, pinkish-red or brownish outside, orange-yellow within, with a yellow throat surrounded by red; wings shorter, narrow-obovate, auricled above the 2-3 x 3-4 mm claw, orange-yellow apically, pinkish-red basally; keel shortest, obovate, auricled above the c. 3 mm long claw, reddish distally, white basally; ovary sessile, densely villous; style slender, pubescent basally, glabrous above.

Pod subsessile, oblong, 15-30 x 10-15 mm, flat, pubescent, with a thin conspicuous wing to 5 mm wide beyond the upper sutural nerve, 1-5-seeded; seed ellipsoid, 3 x c. 2 mm.

	Platylobium obtusangulum twig, leaf, flower, petals, connate stamens and legume.
Image source: fig 376a in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Costerroans (1981) Native trees and shrubs of south-eastern Australia, p. 194; Ross (1983) Muelleria 5:133, fig. 4.

Distribution:  frequently in open woodland and heathland. S.Aust.: MU, SL, KI, SE.   Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Oct. — Nov.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: P. triangulare R. Br. in W.T. Aiton, Hort. Kew. edn 2, 4:266 (1812). Ivyflat-pea. Differs from P. obtusangulum in having flowers on pedicels 10-15 mm long which conspicuously exceed the bracts and the stalked pod. Occurs in Vic. close to the S. Aust. border; also in Tas.

Author: Not yet available