Pimelea stricta, commonly known as gaunt rice-flower,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is an erect shrub with narrowly elliptic or linear leaves, and compact heads of densely hairy, creamy-white to yellow flowers surrounded by 4 egg-shaped involucral bracts.
Pimelea stricta is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and has glabrous stems. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs and are narrowly elliptic or linear, long and wide on a short petiole. The flowers are bisexual and borne in compact clusters of many hairy, creamy-white to yellow flowers, surrounded by 4 egg-shaped involucral bracts and wide. The bracts are medium green, sometimes with a yellowish or reddish tinge. The floral tube is long, and the sepals are long. Flowering occurs in most months with a peak between August and November.[2] [3] [4]
Pimelea stricta was first formally described in 1854 by Carl Meissner in the journal Linnaea from specimens collected in the Mount Lofty Ranges.[5] The specific epithet, (stricta) means "straight" or "upright".[6]
Gaunt rice-flower mainly grows in open woodland, in mallee or on hills in sandy soils, and is found from north-eastern New South Wales through Victoria to the Eyre Peninsula and Flinders Ranges in south-eastern South Australia.