Handsome flat-pea

Platylobium formosum, commonly known as handsome flat-pea or simply flat-pea, is an erect to spreading shrub in the family Fabaceae endemic to south-eastern Australia, occurring in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, and Tasmania. It typically grows 0.5 to 2 metres tall with several slender, finely hairy stems arising from a woody base. The leaves are opposite, simple, ovate to triangular-ovate or cordate, 1.5 to 5 centimetres long, with a leathery texture, conspicuous reticulate venation, and a sharp apex. Showy pea-flowers, 1.5 to 2.5 centimetres across, are borne singly or in small clusters in the upper leaf axils on slender pedicels subtended by brown bracteoles; the standard petal is bright yellow with prominent red-brown to maroon markings near the base, while the keel and wings are similarly bicoloured. Flowering occurs mainly in spring. The fruits are flat, oblong legumes 2 to 4 centimetres long with a conspicuous winged upper margin. It inhabits sclerophyll forest and heath on sandy soils.