Styphelia cordifolia explained

Styphelia cordifolia, commonly known as heart-leaved beard-heath,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is an erect shrub with broadly egg-shaped to round leaves, and white, tube-shaped flowers, the petals bearded on the inside.

Description

Styphelia cordifolia is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and has softly-hairy branchlets. Its leaves are broadly egg-shaped to round, long and wide and curve downwards with a short bristle on the tip. The flowers are arranged in spikes long in leaf axils, each spike with up to three flowers with broadly egg-shaped to round bracteoles long at the base. The sepals are egg-shaped, long, the petals white and joined at the base to form a tube long, the lobes long and bearded on the inside.[2]

Taxonomy

Styphelia cordifolia was first formally described in 1838 by John Lindley and given the name Leucopogon cordifolius in Thomas Mitchell's journal, Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia.[3] [4] In 1873, Ferdinand von Mueller transferred the species to Styphelia as S. cordifolia in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. The specific epithet (cordifolia) means "heart-leaved".[5]

Distribution and habitat

Heart-leaved beard-heath grows in the understorey of woodland and in heathland in the far north-west of Victoria, the south-east of South Australia, and disjunctly in the Carnarvon, Geraldton Sandplains, Yalgoo bioregions in the west of Western Australia.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Leucopogon cordifolius . State Herbarium of South Australia . 7 June 2022.
  2. Web site: Walsh . Neville G. . Styphelia cordifolia . Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria . 7 June 2022.
  3. Web site: Leucopogon cordifolius. APNI. 7 June 2022.
  4. Book: Mitchell . Thomas L. . Three expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia . 1839 . London . 122 . Second . 7 June 2022.
  5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 170 . 3rd.