Styphelia subulata explained

Styphelia subulata is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a rigid shrub with many branches, usually sharply-pointed, linear leaves and usually one or two white, tube-shaped flowers in leaf axils.

Description

Styphelia subulata is a rigid, scrubby shrub that typically grows to a height of about, and has many branches. The leaves are usually linear, long, the edges rolled under, and sharply pointed. The flowers are usually arranged singly or in pairs in leaf axils on a very short peduncle, with very small bracts and bracteoles less than half the length of the sepals. The sepals are about long, the petals white and joined at the base to form a tube about the same length as the sepals, with lobes longer than the petal tube.[1]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1864 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Leucopogon subulatus in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae, from specimens collected near the Great Australian Bight by George Maxwell.[2] [3] In 2020, Michael Hislop, Darren Crayn and Caroline Puente-Lelievre transferred the species to Styphelia as S. subulata in Australian Systematic Botany. The specific epithet (subulata) means "awl-shaped".[4]

Distribution

Styphelia subulata is found in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains and Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bentham . George . Flora Australiensis . 4 . 1868 . Lovell Reeve & Co. . London . 210–211 . 18 April 2024.
  2. Web site: Leucopogon subulatus. APNI. 18 April 2024.
  3. Book: von Mueller . Ferdinand . Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae . 4 . 1864 . Victorian Government Printer . Melbourne . 103–104 . 18 April 2024.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 31y . 3rd.