Cryptandra apetala is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with tufted, linear to lance-shaped leaves, and urn-shaped white to creamy-white and pink flowers arranged on short side shoots.
Cryptandra apetala is a woody shrub that typically grows to a height of up to . The leaves are arranged in tufts, linear to lance-shaped with the edges rolled under, so that the leaves appear cylindrical. The flowers are white to creamy-white and pink, arranged in clusters of 2 to 8 on short side shoots. The bracts are brown and shorter than the sepals lobes. The sepals are about long and joined at the base to form an urn-shaped tube, the tube and sepals lobes densely covered with soft hairs. There are no petals but the stamens have relatively large anthers. Flowering occurs from August to October.[1] [2]
Cryptandra apetala was first formally described in 1909 by Alfred James Ewart and Jean White-Haney in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria from specimens collected near Cowcowing by Max Koch.[3] The specific epithet (apetala) means "without petals".[4]
In 1995, Barbara Lynette Rye described two varieties of C. apetala in the journal Nuytsia, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
This cryptandra grows on sandy soil in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains, Mallee and Yalgoo bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Both varieties of C. apetala are listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.