Lechenaultia chlorantha explained

Lechenaultia chlorantha, commonly known as Kalbarri leschenaultia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae and is endemic to a restricted area near Kalbarri in Western Australia. It is a subshrub or shrub with many branches, crowded, narrow, fleshy leaves and pale bluish-green, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

Lechenaultia chlorantha is an openly-branched subshrub or shrub that typically grows to a height of up to, has many branches and often forms suckers. The leaves are glabrous, crowded, long, narrow and fleshy. The flowers are arranged singly on the ends of branchlets, the sepals long and glabrous. The petals are pale bluish-green, long, the wings on the lower petal lobes triangular, wide, on the upper lobes wide. Flowering occurs from August to September and the fruit is long.[1]

Taxonomy

Lechenaultia chlorantha was first formally described in 1860 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected near the Murchison River.[2] [3] The specific epithet (chlorantha) means "green-flowered".[4]

Distribution and habitat

Kalbarri leschenaultia grows in rocky sandstone near the mouth of the Murchison River at Kalbarri in the Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic region of south-western Western Australia.[1]

Conservation status

This lechenaultia is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and as "Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lechenaultia chlorantha . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 25 January 2022.
  2. Web site: Lechenaultia chlorantha. APNI. 25 January 2022.
  3. Book: von Mueller . Ferdinand . Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae . 2 . 1860 . Victorian Government Printer . Melbourne . 20 . 24 January 2022.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 162 . 3rd.