Description: Shrubs, often with several stems arising from a woody rootstock; branches terete or flat, mostly ridged, occasionally spinescent.
Leaves alternate, mostly simple or reduced to scales, often with a mass of glandular processes in axils; stipules minute, larger and spinescent or absent.
Flowers 1 to several in axils, subtended by a basal bract and a few small scales; bracteoles at or above middle of pedicel. Calyx with upper 2 teeth ± united, broader than other 3 teeth. Standard usually ± circular, clawed, reflexed; wings and keel narrow. Stamens monodelphous, tube split on upper side; anthers alternatively basifixed and dorsifixed. Ovary few- to several-ovuled, glabrous.
Pod compressed; seeds compressed with a small hilum surrounded by a collar-like aril.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 11 species, endemic Australia. Australia: all mainland States.
Text by T. A. James
| ||Key to the species|| |
|1||Shrubs apparently leafless, leaves reduced to scales||2|
|Shrubs with some leaves||3|
|2||Branches distinctly flat, rarely more or less terete, mostly 3–5 mm wide, tips rigid and sharply pointed; calyx teeth 4||Templetonia sulcata|
|Branches terete, mostly 1–3 mm wide, tips blunt, more or less lax; calyx teeth 5|
Back to 1
|3||Stipules spinescent, recurved, 2–10 mm long||Templetonia aculeata|
|Stipules not spinescent, triangular, c. 1 mm long|
Back to 1