Styphelia deformis explained

Styphelia deformis is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to eastern coastal Australia. It is a bushy shrub with narrowly egg-shaped leaves, and white, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

Styphelia deformis is a bushy shrub that typically grows to a height of less than, its branchlets more or less glabrous. Its leaves are narrowly egg-shaped, long and wide on a petiole about long. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branches and in upper leaf axils and are sessile with bracteoles long. The sepals are long, the petals white and joined at the base to form a tube about long, the lobes long and softly-hairy inside. Flowering occurs from March to May and is followed by an oblong drupe long.[1]

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown who gave it the name Leucopogon deformis in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.[2] [3] In 1824, Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel transferred the species to the genus Styphelia as S. deformis in Systema Vegetabilium.[4] [5] The specific epithet (deformis) means "departing from the correct shape".[6]

Distribution and habitat

This species of styphelia grows in coastal heath from Hawks Nest in New South Wales to south-east Queensland.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Powell . Jocelyn M. . Leucopogon deformis . Royal Botanic Garden Sydney . 5 August 2022.
  2. Web site: Leucopogon deformis. APNI. 5 August 2022.
  3. Book: Brown . Robert . Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae Van-Diemen, exhibens characteres plantarum quas annis 1802-1805 . 1810 . London . 546 . 5 August 2022.
  4. Web site: Styphelia deformis. APNI. 25 November 2023.
  5. Book: Sprengel . Kurt P.J. . Linné . Carl . Sprengel . Anton . Systema vegetabilium . 1 . 1825 . Gottingen . 658 . 25 November 2023.
  6. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 180 . 3rd.
  7. Benson . Doug . McDougall . Lyn . Ecology of Sydney plant species Part 3: Dicotyledon families Cabombaceae to Eupomatiaceae . Cunninghamia . 1995 . 4 . 2 . 367–368 . 5 August 2022.