Petrophile stricta explained

Petrophile stricta is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, spreading shrub with needle-shaped, sharply-pointed leaves, and oval heads of hairy, pink to cream-coloured flowers.

Description

Petrophile stricta is an erect, spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of and has glabrous branchlets and leaves. The leaves are needle-shaped, sharply pointed and long. The flowers are arranged at the ends of branchlets in oval heads up to about in diameter on a peduncle long, with deciduous, linear involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are long, pink to cream-coloured and hairy. Flowering occurs from October to December and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in an oval head long.[1] [2]

Taxonomy

Petrophile stricta was first formally described in 1990 by Donald Bruce Foreman in the journal Muelleria from and unpublished description by Charles Gardner.[3] The specific epithet (stricta) means "straight, erect or rigid".[4]

Distribution and habitat

This petrophile grows in sandy shrubland and scrub in sandy-gravelly soils over laterite on sandplains, ridges and low hills in the drier, inland parts in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie and Mallee biogeographic regions in the south-west of Western Australia.

Conservation status

Petrophile stricta is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Petrophile stricta . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 9 January 2021.
  2. Foreman . Donald B. . New species of Petrophile R.Br. (Proteaceae) from Western Australia . Muelleria . 1990 . 8 . 2 . 307–309 . 9 January 2021.
  3. Web site: Petrophile stricta. APNI. 9 January 2021.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 315 . 3rd.