Styphelia angustiflora explained

Styphelia angustiflora is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to a small area near York, in the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, compact shrub with sharply-pointed, narrowly egg-shaped leaves and white, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

Styphelia angustiflora is an erect shrub that typically grows to about high and wide, its branchlets hairy. The leaves are narrowly egg-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The leaves are directed upwards and have a sharp point on the tip. The flowers are sessile and mostly arranged singly in leaf axils, with egg-shaped to round bracts long and egg-shaped to elliptic bracteoles long at the base. The sepals are narrowly elliptic, long and the petals white, forming a tube long with lobes long, the inner surface hairy. Flowering mainly occurs from August to early October and the fruit is long with three to five ridges.[1]

Taxonomy

Styphelia angustiflora was first formally described in 2019 by Michael Clyde Hislop and Caroline Puente-Lelievre in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected south-west of York in 1997.[2] The specific epithet (angustiflora) means "narrow-flowered".[3]

Distribution and habitat

This styphelia grows in woodland in a small area south-west of York, in the Jarrah Forest bioregion of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Styphelia angustiflora is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Hislop . Michael C. . Puente-Lelievre . Caroline . A taxonomic review of the Styphelia xerophylla group (Ericaceae: Epacridoideae: Styphelieae). . Nuytsia . 2019 . 30 . 158–161 . 5 September 2023.
  2. Web site: Styphelia angustiflora. APNI. 5 September 2023.
  3. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 133 . 3rd.
  4. Web site: Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna. Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. 5 September 2023.