Shrubby Pencil-Flower

Shrubby Pencil-Flower is a small shrubby perennial herb, sometimes only short-lived. Stems are erect or sometimes prostrate, growing up to 1 m long, densely hairy and sometimes bristly. Leaves are trifoliolate - leaflets elliptic to lance-shaped, up to 3.3 cm long, velvety and bristly. Margin is entire, often thickened. Flowers are borne in dense heads in leaf axils and at the end of branches. Normally one flower opens at the time. Flowers are shaped like pea-flowers, with the standard petal creamy-white to orange-yellow with red veining and red at the base. Wings and keel are yellow. Pod is 1-2-jointed, 4-9 mm long, beaked. Found Flowering: December.