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.