Bush Pea 1

Native Pea Flowers

In one vibrant corner of our bush we have Waxlip Orchids, Pink Eyes (coming soon!) and this glorious shrub covered in gold and red flowers.  So many of our native shrubs have flowers of this colour and shape, and my head is spinning from trying to identify this one correctly.  I believe it is probably one of the many Bush-Pea species, but from the  photographs I’ve looked at, I can’t see one where both the leaves and the flowers match ours.

The other possibility is that it may be a Parrot-Pea, but I don’t think so.  We had a few Parrot-Pea bushes in flower last Spring, and the Parrot-Pea flowers are larger and more open than the ones shown below.   I’ve noticed that the Bush-Pea flowers can appear folded, like ours are.

Growing in an open spot, in sandy soil, and nestled among Bracken and Xanthorrhoea, the Bush-Pea seems to have avoided the attention of our Swamp Wallabies. That’s something to be thankful for, because they seem to have eaten many of the larger shrubs that were growing last year.  I hope the open position is enough to keep the Bush-Pea safe for Spring and Summer (and next year) because I just love this blaze of colour.

 

Bush Pea 1
The cheerful gold and red flowers are a welcome spot of colour in a primarily green, grey and brown coloured landscape.
Bush Pea 2
This shrub is around one meter in height, with sprawling thin twiggy branches.

 

Bush Pea 3
Each individual flower is small 5 to 10 mm across. Unlike many pea flowers, it is folded

5 thoughts on “Native Pea Flowers

  1. You are on the right track. Check out Pultenea gunnii, Golden Bush-pea. Parrot-peas, genus Dillwynia, have a standard (the petal that stands up) much wider than it is high.

    1. Thanks for taking the time to make some suggestions. I did look closely at the Golden Bush-pea on VicVeg.net.au VicVeg and while the leaves are similar, they are thicker on the stem than ours. Also the lower lobes of the flowers look longer than ours. Perhaps it is variable or ours is a sub-species. I will try to find other reference sites with photographs of the Golden bush-pea. I agree it is one of the closest matches I can find.

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