Podolobium ilicifolium, the Prickly Shaggy-pea is a shrub found in eastern and southern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. A common plant, found in dry or moist eucalyptus

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...

 forest, often on clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

 or sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 based soils. Growing to three metres tall.

Leaves are opposite or nearly opposite on the stem. 2 to 10 cm long, 1 to 3 cm wide, spikey and lobed, somewhat similar to the holly. The specific epithet ilicifolium which means “holly like leaves”. The bottom of the leaves are somewhat hairy. Yellow and red flowers form on racemes in spring and early summer. The fruit is a pea type pod, oval or oblong, 10 mm long and 2.5 mm in diameter. Curved or straight.