Calytrix acutifolia


Calytrix acutifolia is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae and is endemic to south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender, openly-branched shrub with linear to lance-shaped leaves and clusters of white, cream-coloured or yellow flowers with 40 to 85 white stamens in several rows.

Description

Calytrix acutifolia is a slender, openly-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of up to, and has linear to lance-shaped leaves long and wide on a petiole long. There is usually a stipule up to long at the base of the petiole. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils with green to light brown bracteoles long. The floral tube is more or less cylindrical, with 5 to 7 ribs and long. The sepals are glabrous, long and lack an awn. The petals are white, long and wide and there are 40 to 85 cream to light yellow stamens in 2 to 4 rows. Flowering occurs between April and December with a peak from mid-October to early November.

Taxonomy

This species was first described in 1839 by John Lindley who gave it the name Lhotskya acutifolia in his A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony. In 1987, Lyndley Craven transferred the species to Calytrix as C. acutifolia in the journal Brunonia. The specific epithet means "sharply pointed leaves".

Distribution and habitat

Calytrix acutifolia grows on hill slopes and gullies in wandoo and marri woodlands on the escarpment of the Darling Range and Pinjarra plain in the Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

This species is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.