Stachystemon axillaris, commonly known as leafy stachystemon, is a species of flowering plant in the family Picrodendraceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a monoecious shrub with simple, linear to narrowly elliptic or oblong leaves and small yellow flowers arranged singly in upper leaf axils.
Stachystemon axillaris is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has glabrous branchlets. Its leaves are linear to narrowly elliptic or oblong, mostly long and wide on a petiole long with pale brown, narrowly triangular stipules long at the base. Both sides of the leaves are glabrous. The flowers are arranged singly or in small groups in upper leaf axils with up to 3 bracts at the base. Male flowers are on a slender pedicel long, the 6 tepals yellow, the 3 outer tepals long and wide and there are 50 to 70 stamens, the anthers red, turning brown. Female flowers are on a stout pedicel long, the 6 tepals similar to each other, greenish-yellow, long and wide. Flowering occurs from February to October, and the fruit is a flattened oval capsule long.[1] [2] [3]
Stachystemon axillaris was first formally described in 1968 by Alex George in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens he collected near the Mogumber siding in 1965.[4] The specific epithet (axillaris) means "axillary", referring to the flowers.[5]
Leafy stachystemon grows on sandplains in the area between Kalbarri National Park, Three Springs, Moora and Wanneroo in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.[1] [2]