Identifying Australian Native pea flowers is very difficult. I have many photographs of flowers that look slightly different, and I have spent days trying to work out whether they are the same species or different species.  In my search I have discovered that there are many different species of Bush-pea, Bitter-pea, Parrot-pea, Wedge-pea, Flat-pea and Eutaxia, all of which look like variations of the same flower.  This means the shape of the leaves, whether the flowers cluster or grow along the stem, whether the large back petal is standing up or laying flat, whether it is divided by a line or is smooth all the way around,  how much red and yellow there is, and where these colours are distributed are all meaningful identifiers.

Using all of these identifying features, I am pretty sure, but not 100% sure, that this flower is a Bushy Parrot-Pea.  The reason I chose this over similar looking flowers is due to the shape of the leaves, and the way the  red  on the large petal seems to follow the separating line right to the top of the petal.  Other similar flowers just have yellow on the separation line. (Sorry, I don’t have a lot of botanical language, so feel free to provide me with the correct technical terms if you know them).

Our property was alive with pea-flowers in Spring.  This photograph was taken in October.  I will continue to try to identify the various species as time permits. Some of the most beautiful flowers are proving to be the most difficult to identify.

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