Gompholobium pungens
# Gompholobium pungens

Gompholobium pungens is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, openly-branched shrub with spiny stems, pinnate leaves and mostly yellow, pea-like flowers with pink or purple markings.

## Description

Gompholobium pungens is an erect, openly-branched shrub that typically grows to 50–70 cm (20–28 in) high and up to 40 m (130 ft) wide and has spiny stems. Its leaves are 17–72 mm (0.67–2.83 in) long and pinnate with eight to seventeen cylindrical leaflets. Each flower is borne on a hairy pedicel 7.0–7.2 mm (0.28–0.28 in) long with hairy bracteoles 1.2–1.5 mm (0.047–0.059 in) long. The sepals are about 8 mm (0.31 in) long, the standard petal is yellow to orange with pink or purple markings and about 7.6 mm (0.30 in) long, the wings about 7 mm (0.28 in) long, and the keel about 6.5 mm (0.26 in) long. Flowering occurs from August to September and the fruit is a pod about 7 mm (0.28 in) long.

## Taxonomy

Gompholobium pungens was first formally described in 2008 by Jennifer Anne Chappill in Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected near Warradarge in 1999. The specific epithet (pungens) means "ending in a sharp, hard point".

## Distribution and habitat

This pea grows in lower valley slopes and on small rises in the Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.

## Conservation status

Gompholobium pungens is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.

