Babingtonia minutifolia
Babingtonia minutifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to a small area in the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect, widely spreading shrub with narrowly egg-shaped to elliptic leaves and pale pink flowers arranged singly in leaf axils, each flower with 16 to 19 stamens in a circle.
Description
Babingtonia minutifolia is an erect, widely spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of and has very slender branches. The leaves are mostly narrowly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, sometimes elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in singly in leaf axils on a peduncle long with bracteoles long at the base. The sepals are long and wide pink, or sometimes absent. The petals are pale pink, long with 16 to 19 stamens in a circle. The ovary has three locules and the style is long. Flowering occurs from late September to December, and the fruit is a capsule long and in diameter.
Taxonomy
Babingtonia minutifolia was first formally described in 2015 by Barbara Rye and Malcolm Trudgen in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected south of Bunjil in 1981. The specific epithet means "very small leaves".
Distribution and habitat
This species grows on rock outcrops in the area between Perenjori, Carnamah and Bunjil in the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status
Babingtonia minutifolia is listed as "Priority One" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is known from only one or a few locations which are potentially at risk.