Xanthosia leiophylla is a tufted herb or weak subshrub in the family Apiaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It has bifoliolate or trifoliate leaves and 2 to 4 rays with up to 3 reddish flowers.
Xanthosia leiophylla is a tufted herb or weak subshrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has low-lying or ascending branches. Its leaves are mostly at the base of the plant and are long and wide on a petiole long with bifoliolate or trifoliate leaflets long. The flowers are arranged in 2 to 4 rays on a peduncle long, each with up to 6 male or bisexual flowers. There are bracts long at the base of the rays, and bracteoles at the base of the flowers up to 3 sessile flowers at the base of the rays. The sepals and petals are reddish and about long. Flowering occurs in spring and summer and the fuit is about long and the schizocarps are finely ribbed.[1]
Xanthosia leiophylla was first formally described in 1859 by Friedrich Wilhelm Klatt from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller. Klatt's description was published in Linnaea : Ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde.[2] [3]
Xanthosia leiophylla grows in sandy or heathy woodland in south-western Victoria and at Wilsons Promontory. It also occurs in South Australia where it is included with Xanthosia dissecta.[4]