Leptosema anomalum

Leptosema anomalum is a shrub or subshrub with broom-like stems with many branches up to 50 cm (20 in) high, the branches and branchlets angular and ribbed, 1.0–1.5 mm (0.039–0.059 in) wide. Most of the leaves are reduced to reddish, narrowly egg-shaped scales, 1.5–4 mm (0.059–0.157 in) long. The flowers are crowded near the base of the stems, with pink, egg-shaped bracts 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long. The flowers are pale greenish, each flower on a pedicel up to 2 mm (0.079 in) long. The petals are shorter than the sepals, the standard petal shorter than the wings and keel, the standard 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) broad, the wings narrowly egg-shaped, 6.5–8 mm (0.26–0.31 in) long and the keel elliptic, 7–8 mm (0.28–0.31 in) long. The ovary is more or less sessile, covered with silky hairs and sometimes has only two ovules. Flowering occurs from May to November, and the pods are oval, 6–9 mm (0.24–0.35 in) long and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long, including the beak 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) long.

This species of Leptosema grows in deep red sand on sandplains, at the bases of sand dunes and in watercourses in the Dampierland, Great Sandy Desert, Pilbara and Tanami bioregions of northern Western Australia and the Dampierland, Davenport Murchison Ranges, Mitchell Grass Downs bioregion, Ord Victoria Plain, Pilbara, Sturt Plateau and Tanami bioregions of the Northern Territory.