Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans explained

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is similar to other shrubs in the species Eremophila glabra but it distinguished from them by its usually grey, felty leaves, dull yellow, orange or red flowers with hairy sepals, growing in sandy soils on dunes and limestone outcrops between Bunbury and Shark Bay.

Description

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans is a low, spreading, sometimes straggly shrub up to 0.4m (01.3feet) high, sometimes spreading to 2m (07feet) wide. The stems are usually scurfy or hairy and the leaves are grey due to a covering of fine hairs. The leaves are elliptic to lance-shaped, NaNmm long and NaNmm wide.[1] [2] [3]

The flowers are dull yellow, orange or red and occur singly in the leaf axils on flower stalks NaNmm long. There are 5 partly overlapping sepals which are narrow triangular to lance-shaped and 5 petals forming a tube except at the ends where the lowest lobe is thinner that the rest and is turned back below the flower. Flowering occurs from May to January and is followed by fruit which are oval-shaped and NaNmm long.

Taxonomy and naming

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans was first described in 1845 by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling who gave it the name Stenochilus albicans and published the description in Plantae Preissianae.[4] [5] The type was collected by Bartling near Fremantle. It was reduced to a subspecies of Eremophila glabra by Robert Chinnock in 2007.[6]

Distribution and habitat

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans occurs in coastal areas between Bunbury and Shark Bay where it grows in sandy soil on sand dunes and limestone outcrops.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Chinnock. R.J. (Bob). Eremophila and allied genera: a monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae. 2007. Rosenberg. Dural, NSW. 9781877058165. 582–58.
  2. Book: Brown. Andrew. Buirchell. Bevan. A field guide to the eremophilas of Western Australia. 2011. Simon Nevill Publications. Hamilton Hill, W.A.. 9780980348156. 118. 1st.
  3. Web site: Archer. William. Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans - Emu Bush. Esperance Wildflowers. 3 September 2016.
  4. Web site: Stenochilus albicans. APNI. 3 September 2016.
  5. Book: Bartling. Friedrich. Plantae Preissianae (Volume 2). 1845. Sumptibus Meissneri. Hamburg. 351. 3 September 2016.
  6. Web site: Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans. APNI. 3 September 2016.