Philotheca basistyla, commonly known as the white-flowered philotheca,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small shrub with narrow club-shaped leaves and white flowers arranged singly on the ends of branchlets.
Philotheca basistyla is a shrub that grows to a height of with corky branchlets. The leaves are narrow club-shaped, about long with scattered warty glands. The flowers are borne singly on the ends of the branchlets, each flower on a narrow top-shaped pedicel about long. There are five broadly egg-shaped sepals about long and five elliptical white petals about long. The ten stamens are joined for two-thirds of their length to form a cylindrical tube. Flowering occurs from August to October.[2] [3]
Philotheca basistyla was first formally described in 1993 by Frans Hendricus Mollemans in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected near Trayning.[4]
White-flowered philotheca grows in dense scrub north-west of Southern Cross in the south-west of Western Australia.
This philotheca is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and an interim recovery plan has been prepared.[5] It is also listed as "Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia). The main threats to the species include road and firebreak maintenance activities, pipeline management, weed invasion and grazing by rabbits.