Sphaerolobium acanthos

Erect wiry shrub, to c. 1 m tall; stems terete, faintly ribbed, minutely scabrous; branchlets numerous, to c. 20 mm long, divaricate, recurved, often 3–5-forked at tips, spinescent. Leaves scattered or subwhorled, subulate, 2–3 mm long, caducous; stipules absent. Flowers 1 or 2, axillary; peduncle to c. 1.5 mm long, produced into a subulate tip between flowers; pedicels to c. 1.5 mm long; bracts and bracteoles obovate. Calyx campanulate, 3.5–4.5 mm long, lead-grey, more or less glabrous; teeth imbricate, unequal, longer than tube; upper lip cuneate; lower lobes subulate; petals yellow, orange or reddish-brown; standard transversely broad-elliptic, 7–7.5 mm long, yellow at centre; keel obliquely broad-obovate, about the same length as wings. Pod obovoid-ellipsoid, c. 4.5 mm long, c. 3.5 mm wide, oblique, turgid, pruinose; seeds 1–2, c. 1.5 mm long, mottled. Flowers Nov.–Jan.