Cryptandra exserta is a flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to inland Western Australia. It is a shrub with narrowly oblong leaves and clusters of white, tube-shaped flowers.
Cryptandra exserta is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to about, its young stems densely covered with matted hairs. The leaves are narrowly oblong, long and wide, on a petiole about long with stipules long at the base. The edges of the leaves are turned down or rolled under, sometimes concealing the hairy white lower surface. The flowers are borne in spike-like clusters of 2 to 5, sometimes up to 10, on the ends of branchlets. The flowers are surrounded by about 10 broadly egg-shaped to oblong bracts. The floral tube is about long, the sepals long and densely hairy. Flowering occurs from July to September.[1]
Cryptandra exserta was first formally described in 2007 by Barbara Lynette Rye in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected north of Norseman in 2001.[2] The specific epithet (exserta ) means "protruding", referring to the flowers' protruding from the bracts.
This cryptandra mainly grows on plains in the Coolgardie and Mallee bioregions of inland Western Australia.
This cryptandra is listed as "Threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is in danger of extinction.[3]