{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}} {{speciesbox |name = |image = |image_caption = |status_system = |status = |genus = Bossiaea |species = cucullata |authority = J.H.Ross<ref name=APC>{{cite web|title=''Bossiaea cucullata''|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/162180|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref> |synonyms = }}
'''''Bossiaea cucullata''''' is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a dense, many-branched shrub with narrow-winged cladodes, leaves reduced to dark brown scales, and yellow and deep red or pale greenish-yellow flowers.
==Description== ''Bossiaea cucullata'' is a rigid, dense, many-branched shrub that typically grows up to {{cvt|2|m}} high and {{cvt|5|m}} wide with greyish-green, more or less glabrous foliage. The branches are sometimes flattened with slightly winged cladodes {{cvt|2–5|mm}} wide. The leaves are reduced to dark brown, egg-shaped scales {{cvt|0.7–1.5|mm}} long. The flowers are usually arranged singly, each flower on a pedicel up to {{cvt|5|mm}} long with overlapping, broadly egg-shaped bracts up to {{cvt|1.1|mm}} long. The sepals are joined at the base forming a tube {{cvt|2.3–4.4|mm}} long, the two upper lobes {{cvt|4.9–10.2|mm}} long and the three lower lobes {{cvt|1.1–2.4|mm}} long, with a broadly egg-shaped bracteole {{cvt|1.0–1.2|mm}} long on the pedicel. The standard petal is usually deep yellow to orange-yellow and {{cvt|10.0–14.4|mm}} long, the wings about the same length as the standard, the keel deep red, maroon or greenish-yellow and {{cvt|13.5–26|mm}} long. Flowering occurs from March to October and the fruit is an oblong pod {{cvt|25–48|mm}} long.<ref name=FloraBase>{{FloraBase|name=''Bossiaea cucullata''|id=18427}}</ref><ref name="Ross">{{cite journal |last1=Ross |first1=James H. |title=Notes on Western Australian ''Bossiaea'' species (Fabaceae): 3 |journal=Muelleria |date=1998 |volume=11 |pages=8–11 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/208938#page/12/mode/1up |access-date=30 July 2021}}</ref><ref name="Muelleria">{{cite journal |last1=Ross |first1=James H. |title=A conspectus of the Western Australian ''Bossiaea'' species (Bossiaeeae: Fabaceae) |journal=Muelleria |date=2006 |volume=23 |pages=121–123 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/278250#page/123/mode/1up |access-date=30 July 2021}}</ref>
==Taxonomy and naming== ''Bossiaea cucullata'' was first formally described in 1998 by James Henderson Ross in the journal ''Muelleria'' from specimens collected on the western side of Lake King in 1997.<ref name="Ross" /><ref name="Muelleria" /><ref name=APNI>{{cite web|title=''Bossiaea cucullata''|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/557534 |publisher=APNI|access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref> The specific epithet (''cucullata'') means "hooded", referring to the upper sepal lobes.<ref name="Ross" /><ref name="Sharr">{{cite book |last1=Sharr |first1=Francis Aubi |last2=George |first2=Alex |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2019 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=174 |edition=3rd}}</ref>
==Distribution and habitat== This bossiaea grows in deep sand around the edge of salt lakes in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Mallee and Murchison biogeographic regions of Western Australia.<ref name="FloraBase" /><ref name="Muelleria" />
==Conservation status== ''Bossiaea cucullata'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.<ref name="FloraBase" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q15525846}}
cucullata Category:Eudicots of Western Australia Category:Plants described in 1998