Acrotriche affinis
Acrotriche affinis, commonly known as ridged ground-berry or prickly honeypots, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, and is endemic to south-eastern, continental Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, lance-shaped leaves, and spikes of tube-shaped, greenish flowers, and white, spherical drupes.
Description
Acrotriche affinis is an erect, much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of about and has softly-hairy branchlets. The leaves are broadly lance-shaped, long and wide with 5 to 9 more or less parallel veins separated by deep groves. The flowers are arranged in spikes of 4 to 10, about long, with bracteoles long at the base of the sepals. The sepals are long, and the petals are joined at the base to form a greenish tube,, sometimes tinged with maroon, with lobes long. Flowering occurs from June to October and the fruit is a white, spherical drupe about in diameter.
Taxonomy
Acrotriche affinis was first formally described in 1839 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his Prodromus Systematis [Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis]. The specific epithet means "neighbouring" or "akin to", referring to its similarity to A. serrulata.
Distribution and habitat
Ridged ground-berry grows in coastal areas between the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, and inland as far as the Big Desert.