Marianthus bicolor, commonly known as painted marianthus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a low, erect, spreading shrub or climber with narrowly elliptic leaves and white to cream-coloured flowers with maroon or purple striations flowers arranged in branched clusters.
Marianthus bicolor is a low, erect, spreading shrub or climber with reddish purple new stems. Its adult leaves are narrowly elliptic, long and wide on a short petiole. The leaves are thick and both surfaces of the mature leaves are covered with a waxy bloom. The flowers are borne in branched clusters on a peduncle long, the sepals egg-shaped, thickened and wavy, up to long and yellow on the outer surface. The five petals are narrowly spatula-shaped, long and up to wide, white to cream-coloured with maroon or purple striations. Flowering mainly occurs from December to March.[1]
This species was first formally described in 1839 by Alois (Aloys) Putterlick in Novarum Stirpium Decades.[2] [3] In 1860, Ferdinand von Mueller transferred the species to Marianthus as M. bicolor in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.[4] The specific epithet (bicolor) means "two colours".[5]
Marianthus bicolor grows in mallee in valleys, on hills, flats, sandplains and roadsides, and is widespread in the south-west of Western Australia, mainly from the Darling Range to Ravensthorpe.
Marianthus bicolor is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.