Balaustion mukinbudin
Balaustion mukinbudin is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to inland Western Australia. It is a shrub with narrowly to broadly egg-shaped leaves, the narrower end towards the base, and white flowers with usually 19 to 25 stamens.
Description
Balaustion mukinbudin is a shrub that typically grows to high and about wide. Its leaves are narrowly to broadly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and about wide with two or three rows of oil glands each side of the midvein. The flowers are about in diameter, the flowers on a peduncle long. The floral tube is long and about wide, green and often tinged with red. The sepals are egg-shaped to elliptic, long, wide and reddish with a whitish irregular border. The petals are white, long, with 19 to 25 stamens. Flowering occurs from September and November, and the fruit is a capsule about long and in diameter.
Taxonomy
Balaustion mukinbudin was first formally described in 2022 by Barbara Lynette Rye in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected north-east of Mukinbudin in 2005. The specific epithet refers to the town of Mukinbudin, which is the centre of occurrence for the genus.
Distribution and habitat
This species of Balaustion grows in sandy soils, sometimes with Melaleuca species or Baeckea elderiana, from east of Bonnie Rock to Chiddarcooping Nature Reserve in the Avon Wheatbelt and Coolgardie bioregions of Western Australia.
Conservation status
Balaustion mukinbudin is listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.