Petrophile shirleyae explained

Petrophile shirleyae is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to Queensland. It is a shrub with pinnate, needle-shaped, sharply-pointed leaves, and narrow oval heads of silky-hairy white to pale cream-coloured flowers.

Description

Petrophile shirleyae is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and has more or less glabrous leaves and branchlets. The leaves are bipinnate or tripinnate, long on a petiole long, with pinnae long. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets in narrow oval heads long, sometimes in pairs, with a few broadly egg-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are up to about long, silky-hairy and white to pale cream-coloured. Flowering occurs from October to February and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in a oval head up to about long.[1]

Taxonomy

Petrophile shirleyae was first formally described in 1891 by Frederick Manson Bailey in the Botany Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, Queensland from material collected by John Francis Shirley on Moreton Island. The specific epithet (shirleyae) honours the wife of the collector of the type material.[2]

Distribution and habitat

Petrophile shirleyae grows in sandy heath and forest in near-coastal areas of south-eastern Queensland.

Conservation status

This petrophile is classified as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Petrophile shirleyae . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 6 January 2021.
  2. Web site: Petrophile shirleyae. APNI. 7 January 2021.
  3. Web site: Species profile—Petrophile shirleyae . Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science . 7 January 2021.