Calytrix breviseta is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a more or less glabrous shrub with egg-shaped, elliptic, lanceolate, oblong or linear leaves and clusters of purple flowers with about 25 to 65 white stamens in several rows, becoming reddish-purple as they age.
Calytrix breviseta is a glabrous shrub that typically grows to a height of up to . Its leaves are egg-shaped, elliptic, lanceolate, oblong or linear, long, wide on a petiole long. There are stipules up to long at the base of the petioles. The floral tube is long, fused to the style and has 10 ribs. The sepals are joined for up to at the base, the lobes egg-shaped to more or less round, long and wide with an awn up to long. The petals are purple with a white base, elliptic, lance-shaped or egg-shaped, long and wide with about 25 to 65 white stamens in 2 or 4 rows, becoming reddish-purple as they age. Flowering period depends on subspecies.[1]
Calytrix breviseta was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony.[2] [3] The specific epithet (breviseta) means 'short bristle'.[4]
In 1987, Lyndley Craven reduced Calytrix stipulosa W.Fitzg. to subspecies Calytrix breviseta subsp. stipulosa in the journal Brunonia, and that name, and the name of the autonym are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
This species of Calytrix is found on swampy flats in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Mallee, Murchison and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions.
Subspecies breviseta is only known from the Perth district on the western side of the Darling Scarp in the Swan Coastal Plain bioregion, but subsp. stipulosa is widely distributed between the Northam–Kojonup districts to the Comet Vale–Lake King districts.
Subspecies stipulosa is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, but subsp. breviseta is listed as "threatened" and an Interim Recovery Plan has been prepared.[7]