Styphelia quartzitica explained

Styphelia quartzitica is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with hairy young branchlets, sharply-pointed, linear or very narrowly egg-shaped leaves, and cream-coloured, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

Styphelia quartzitica is an erect shrub with hairy young branchlets, that typically grows to up to high and wide. Its leaves are linear to very narrowly egg-shaped, long, wide on a petiole long and sharply pointed. The flowers are usually arranged singly in leaf axils and are widely spreading and sessile with broadly egg-shaped bracts long and bracteoles long and wide. The sepals are narrowly egg-shaped, long and wide and pale greenish to straw-coloured. The petals are cream-coloured and joined at the base to form a tube long and wide, with lobes that are turned back and long. Flowering mostly occurs between March and May, sometimes longer.[1]

Taxonomy

Styphelia quartzitica was first formally described in 2019 by Michael Hislop in the journal Nuytsia from specimens he collected in the Fitzgerald River National Park in 2016.[2] The specific epithet (quartzitica) means "belonging to quartz".[3]

Distribution and habitat

This styphelia is restricted to the upper slopes of hills and mountains in remote parts of the Fitzgerald River National Park where it grows in the understorey of dense heath in the Esperance Plains bioregion of southern Western Australia.

Conservation status

Styphelia quartzitica is listed 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 . Styphelia quartzitica and S. rectiloba (Ericaceae: Epacridoideae: Styphelieae), two new, morphologically anomalous species of restricted distribution. Nuytsia . Nuytsia . 2019 . 30 . 229–231 . 15 April 2024.
  2. Web site: Styphelia quartzitica. APNI. 15 April 2024.
  3. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 289 . 3rd.
  4. Web site: Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna. Government of Western Australia Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. 15 April 2024.