Cyanothamnus inconspicuus explained

Cyanothamnus inconspicuus is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with pinnate leaves and small white or creamy green flowers with four petals and eight stamens and occurs from the Stirling Range to Mount Ragged.

Description

Cyanothamnus inconspicuus is an erect, spreading or rounded, compact shrub that grows to a height of 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 with its branches hairless or with a few soft hairs. The leaves are pinnate with three, five or seven leathery, narrow oblong to narrow wedge-shaped leaflets NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The flowers are borne singly or in cymes of a few flowers, the flowers on a glabrous pedicel NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The four sepals are triangular, leathery and about 0.6sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The petals are white to creamy green, about 1.5sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long with pimply glands. The eight stamens have a few hairs and the stigma is small. Flowering mainly occurs from September to December.[1]

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1863 by George Bentham who gave it the name Boronia inconspicua in Flora Australiensis from a specimen collected by James Drummond.[2] [3] In a 2013 paper in the journal Taxon, Marco Duretto and others changed the name to Cyanothamnus inconspicuus on the basis of cladistic analysis.[4] The specific epithet (inconspicuus) is Latin word meaning "not readily visible" or "not prominent".[5]

Distribution and habitat

This boronia usually grows on rocky outcrops and is found from the Stirling Range to Mount Ragged in the Esperance Plains and Mallee biogeographic regions.

Conservation

Cyanothamnus inconspicuus is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Duretto . Marco F. . Wilson . Paul G. . Ladiges . Pauline Y. . Boronia inconspicua . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra . 20 March 2019.
  2. Web site: Boronia inconspicua. APNI. 20 March 2019.
  3. Book: Bentham . George . von Mueller . Ferdinand . Flora Australiensis . 1863 . Lovell Reeve & Co. . London . 313 . 20 March 2019.
  4. Duretto . Marco F. . Heslewood . Margaret M. . Bayly . Michael J. . Boronia (Rutaceae) is polyphyletic: Reinstating Cyanothamnus and the problems associated with inappropriately defined outgroups . Taxon . 2020 . 69 . 3 . 481–499 . 10.1002/tax.12242. 225836058 .
  5. Book: Brown. Roland Wilbur. The Composition of Scientific Words. 1956. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C.. 436.