gorse bitter pea

Daviesia ulicifolia is a rigid, openly-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) and has spiny branchlets. Its phyllodes are narrow elliptic, narrow egg-shaped, rarely egg-shaped, 5–35 mm (0.20–1.38 in) long and 0.5–6 mm (0.020–0.236 in) wide and sharply pointed with a prominent midrib on the upper surface. The flowers are arranged singly or in pairs, sometimes in groups of up to seven, in leaf axils on a peduncle up to 3 mm (0.12 in) long, the rachis up to 1.1 mm (0.043 in) long, each flower on a pedicel 0.5–5 mm (0.020–0.197 in) long. The sepals are 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) long, the five lobes about 0.5–1 mm (0.020–0.039 in) long. Flower colour varies with subspecies, the standard petal broadly egg-shaped with a notched tip, 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) long, 3–10 mm (0.12–0.39 in) wide, and usually yellow or orange-yellow with a red ring surrounding a yellow centre. The wings are 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long, yellow and dark red, the keel 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) long and maroon to red. Flowering occurs from August to October, depending on elevation and latitude, and the fruit is a flattened triangular pod 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) long.

Gorse bitter-pea is widely distributed in Australia, where it grows in open forest in all six states, but not the Northern Territory.

Subspecies aridicola grows in arid areas of the Great Victoria Desert and Murchison bioregions of Western Australia, in a broad area of South Australia, and in the far south-west of New South Wales. Subspecies incarnata grows in hilly or mountain areas in the Mount Lofty Ranges of South Australia and in a few isolated places further south. Subspecies pilligensis grows in heathy woodland and open forest from south-eastern Queensland to the western slopes of New South Wales, especially in the Pilliga Scrub. Subspecies ruscifolia grows in forest from central New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory to the Grampians National Park in Victoria, and in Tasmania. Subspecies stenophylla is mostly found in coastal areas, often in disturbed habitats from the wet tropics of far north Queensland to the Central Coast of New South Wales. Subspecies ulicifolia mostly grows in forest and is widespread from south-eastern Queensland, through most of Victoria to south-eastern South Australia and Tasmania.

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