Citation: R. Br., Curtis's Bot. Mag. 36:t. 1493 ( 1812).

Synonymy: Bossiaea ovata, Platylobium ovatum

Common name: Creeping bossiaea.

Description:
Small almost glabrous shrub or undershrub with an almost woody thick rootstock and prostrate slender stems or branches 20-30 cm long with white forward-directed appressed hairs; leaves alternate, distichous, on filiform sometimes pubescent 2-4 mm long petioles, lamina suborbicular, ovate or ovate-oblong, 1-2 cm long, blunt or acute, never pungent, flat or with slightly undulate margins, glabrous or with soft scattered hairs; stipules narrow-acuminate, shorter than the petiole.

Flowers single, axillary, 8-11 mm long, on filiform hairy peduncles 5-15 mm long and often longer than the corresponding leaf; bracts 2 or 3, ovate, 0.5-1 mm long, brown, scarious, puberulent, ciliate, persistent; bracteoles at the base of the pedicel, ovate, 1.5-2 mm, obtuse or acute, white-pubescent; calyx campanulate, c. 5 mm long, pubescent, upper 2 lobes broader and united above the middle, 3 smaller; standard twice as long as the calyx, yellow streaked with crimson; wings and keel shorter, dark-red to purple; ovary shortly stipitate, glabrous or ciliate, commonly 6-8-seeded.

Pod oblong, subsessile, 20-30 x 5-6 mm, glabrous or with scanty hairs on the upper suture only.

	Bossiaea prostrata twig and flower.
Image source: fig 372c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, NL, MU, SL, SE.   Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Sept. — Nov.

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

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available