Epacris glacialis, commonly known as reddish bog-heath,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a prostrate to low-lying shrub with crowded, rhombus-shaped to broadly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and tube-shaped, white flowers in small clusters near the ends of the branches.
Epacris glacialis is a prostrate to low-lying shrub that typically grows to a height of up to, often forms roots on the lower branches and often appear reddish-purple in autumn. The leaves are rhombic to broadly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole up to long. The flowers are arranged in clusters about long on the ends of branches, the individual flowers more or less sessile with ten to sixteen bracts. The five sepals are long and the petals are white, joined to form a bell-shaped tube, long with spreading lobes long. Flowering occurs from December to February.[2] [3]
This epacris was first formally described in 1867 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Epacris heteronema var. glacialis in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.[4] [5] In 1976, Max Gray raised the variety to species status as Epacris glacialis in Contributions from the Herbarium Australiense.[6] The specific epithet (glacialis) means "frozen" or "glacial".[7]
Epacris glacialis grows in herbfields and grassland near streams and bogs on rocky slopes in the Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales and the Bogong High Plains in Victoria.