{{Short description|Species of legume}} {{use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Speciesbox |image = |image_caption = |genus = Bossiaea |species = halophila |authority = J.H.Ross<ref name=APC>{{cite web|title=''Bossiaea halophila''|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/162182|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=30 July 2021}}</ref> |range_map = BossiaeahalophilaDistMap55.png |range_map_caption = Occurrence data from AVH }}
'''''Bossiaea halophila''''' is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a dense, erect, many-branched shrub with narrow-winged cladodes, leaves reduced to small scales, and yellow-orange and deep red flowers.
==Description== ''Bossiaea halophila'' is a dense, erect, many-branched shrub that typically grows up to {{cvt|0.5–1.6|m}} high and {{cvt|3|m}} wide with more or less glabrous foliage. The branches are sometimes flattened with winged cladodes, the narrowest {{cvt|2–5|mm}} wide. The leaves are reduced to scales about {{cvt|2|mm}} long. The flowers are usually arranged singly, each flower on a pedicel up to {{cvt|5|mm}} long with several, broadly egg-shaped bracts up to {{cvt|1|mm}} long. The five sepals are joined at the base forming a tube {{cvt|3–3.5|mm}} long, the two upper lobes {{cvt|10.5–14.4|mm}} long and the three lower lobes {{cvt|1.5–2.4|mm}} long, with a broadly egg-shaped bracteole up to {{cvt|1|mm}} long on the pedicel. The standard petal is deep yellow or orange yellow and {{cvt|12.5–14.4|mm}} long, the wings are about the same length as the standard, and the keel is deep red and {{cvt|22.8–26|mm}} long. Flowering occurs in October and the fruit is an oblong pod {{cvt|25–48|mm}} long.<ref name=FloraBase>{{FloraBase|name=''Bossiaea halophila''|id=18426}}</ref><ref name="Muelleria">{{cite journal |last1=Ross |first1=James H. |title=Notes on Western Australian ''Bossiaea'' species (Fabaceae): 3 |journal=Muelleria |date=1998 |volume=11 |pages=5–8 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/208938#page/9/mode/1up |access-date=30 July 2021}}</ref>
==Taxonomy and naming== ''Bossiaea halophila'' was first formally described in 1998 by James Henderson Ross in the journal ''Muelleria'' from specimens collected at the start of the causeway on the western side of Lake King in 1996.<ref name="Muelleria" /><ref name=APNI>{{cite web|title=''Bossiaea halophila''|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/557536 |publisher=APNI|access-date=30 July 2021}}</ref> The specific epithet (''halophila'') means "salt-loving", referring to the preferred habitat of this species.<ref name="Muelleria" /><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=213 |edition=3rd}}</ref>
==Distribution and habitat== This bossiaea grows in deep sand around the edge of salt lakes, often with mallee eucalypts and sometimes with ''Bossiaea cucullata''. It occurs from near Pingaring to Hyden and Pingrup with an outlier near Lake King, in the Avon Wheatbelt and Mallee biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.<ref name="FloraBase" /><ref name="Muelleria" />
==Conservation status== ''Bossiaea halophila'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.<ref name="FloraBase" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q15525943}}
halophila Category:Flora of Western Australia Category:Plants described in 1998