''Hovea acanthoclada'', commonly known as thorny hovea,
is a flowering plant in the family
. It is an upright, prickly shrub with small dark green leaves and purple-blue pea flowers in winter and spring. It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to the south-west of Western Australia.
Description
''Hovea acanthoclada'' is an upright or prostrate scrambling, stiff shrub to high, and needle-shaped, hairy stems, mostly spiny. The leaves are oblong, whorled, flat, hairy, long and wide, margins toothed or lobed,
pedicel
Pedicle or pedicel may refer to:
Human anatomy
*Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures
...
long and hairy. The
bracteoles long and hairy,
calyx
Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to:
Biology
* Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...
long with simple hairs. The
corolla colours vary, mostly blue or violet with occasional markings,
standard petal long and smooth,
wings long,
keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
long. Flowering occurs from July to October and the fruit is a dry, smooth
pod
Pod or POD may refer to:
Biology
* Pod (fruit), a type of fruit of a flowering plant
* Husk or pod of a legume
* Pod of whales or other marine mammals
* "-pod", a suffix meaning "foot" used in taxonomy
Electronics and computing
* Proper ort ...
, long and wide.
Taxonomy and naming
''Hovea acanthoclada'' was first formally described in 1863 by
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...
and the description was published in ''
Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae''.
The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
(''acanthoclada'') means "spiny" and "branch".
Distribution and habitat
Thorny hovea grows in lateritic soils in the south-west near
Ravensthorpe Ravensthorpe may refer to any of the following places.
England
*Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury in West Yorkshire
**Ravensthorpe railway station, Dewsbury
*Ravensthorpe, Northamptonshire
*Ravensthorpe, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire
*Ravensthorpe, an histor ...
and gravelly locations near
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...
.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q597703
acanthoclada
Rosids of Western Australia
Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow