Dillwynia retorta

Eggs and bacon
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Dillwynia
Species:
D. retorta
Binomial name
Dillwynia retorta
Illustration from Joseph Maiden's book The Flowering Plants and Ferns of New South Wales.[2]

Dillwynia retorta, commonly known as eggs and bacon,[3] is a species of flowering plant shrub in the family Fabaceae and grows in New South Wales and Queensland. It is usually an erect shrub with thin, smooth, crowded leaves and yellow flowers with red markings.

Description

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Dillwynia retorta is a small, upright shrub to 3 m (9.8 ft) high, with stems covered in short, erect, soft hairs or soft, weak, thin, separated hairs. The leaves are narrowly oblong to linear, about 4–12 mm (0.16–0.47 in) long, spirally twisted, needle-like, smooth or minutely warty, tapering at the apex and sometimes curved. The inflorescence are in terminal clusters in leaf axils of up to 9 flowers on a peduncle 0–2 cm (0.00–0.79 in) long. The bracts are mostly below the flowers, 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long, calyx 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) long, smooth externally or often with tiny hairs. The larger, broader, yellow petal at the back of the flower is 5–12 mm (0.20–0.47 in) long, the centre a reddish colour. The smooth seed pod 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) long. Flowering occurs from June to November.[3][4]

Taxonomy

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This species was first formally described as Pultenea retorta in 1799 by Johann Christoph Wendland and the description was published in Hortus Herrenhusanus.[5][6] In 1917 George Druce changed the name to Dillwynia retorta and the change was published in The Botanical Exchange Club and Society of the British Isles Report for 1916.[7][8]

Distribution and habitat

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Dillwynia retorta grows in heath and forest from south-east Queensland to the Budawang Range in southern New South Wales.[4]

Ecology

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It is a host plant for the jewel beetle species Ethonion jessicae.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Dillwynia retorta". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  2. ^ Maiden, Joseph (1895). Flowering Plants and Ferns of New South Wales. Sydney: New South Wales Government Printer. p. 35. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b Fairley, Alan; Moore, Philip (2010). Native Plants of the Sydney Region. Jacana Books. ISBN 9781741755718.
  4. ^ a b Weston, P.H; Jobson, P.C. "Dillwynia retorta". PlantNET-NSW Flora online. Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Pultenea retorta". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  6. ^ Wendland, Johann C. (1799). Hortus Herrenhusanus (Volume 2).
  7. ^ "Dillwynia retorta". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  8. ^ Druce, George C. (1917). "Nomenclatorial Notes: chiefly African and Australian". The Botanical Exchange Club and Society of the British Isles Report for 1916, Suppl. 2. Supplement 2: 619–620. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  9. ^ Bellamy, C. L. (2002). Coleoptera: Buprestoidea. CSIRO Publishing. ISBN 978-0-643-06900-8.