Darwinia pinifolia explained

Darwinia pinifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a low, spreading to prostrate shrub with linear leaves and dense heads of erect, red to purple flowers.

Description

Darwinia pinifolia is a low, spreading to prostrate shrub that typically grows to height of and has many branches. Its leaves are linear, more or less round to triangular in cross-section, about long and more or less sessile. The flowers are erect, red to purple, arranged in dense heads on the ends of branches, surrounded by egg-shaped or spatula-shaped bracteoles that are shorter than the flowers. The sepal tube is nearly long with broadly egg-shaped lobes about as long as the petals. Flowering occurs from September to February.[1]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley who gave it the name Hedaroma pinifolium in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony.[2] [3] In 1865, George Bentham changed the name to Pimelea pinifolia in Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany.[4] The specific epithet (pinifolia) means "pine-leaved".[5]

Distribution and habitat

Darwinia pinifolia is typically found in sandy soils in winter-wet areas in the Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bentham . George . Flora Australiensis . 3 . 1867 . Lovell Reeve & Co. . London . 14 . 16 November 2022.
  2. Web site: Hedaroma pinifolium. APNI. 16 November 2018.
  3. Book: Lindley . John . A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony . 1839 . James Ridgway . London . 16 November 2022.
  4. Web site: Darwinia pinifolia. APNI. 16 November 2018.
  5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 278 . 3rd.