Calytrix strigosa
Calytrix strigosa is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae and is endemic to near-coastal areas of the south-west of Western Australia. It is a semi-prostrate shrub with linear, elliptic, lance-shaped or round leaves, and pale pink, mauve to purple flowers with about 30 to 70 stamens in several rows.
Description
Calytrix strigosa is a semi-prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of and has branchlets sometimes covered with soft hairs. Its leaves are linear, elliptic, lance-shaped or round, long and wide on a petiole long. There are stipules up to long at the base of the leaves. The flowers are borne on a funnel-shaped peduncle long with elliptic to egg-shaped lobes with the narrower end towards the base, long. The floral tube is spindle-shaped, long and has five ribs. The sepals are fused at the base for up to, with elliptic to round lobes long and wide, with an awn up to long. The petals are pale pink, mauve to purple with a yellow base or whitish base, or pale yellow throughout, elliptic to egg-shaped, long and wide, and there are about 30 to 70 stamens in two or three rows. Flowering occurs in most months with a peak from August to November.
Taxonomy
Calytrix strigosa was first formally described in 1834 by Alan Cunningham in Hooker's Botanical Magazine from specimens he collected on Dirk Hartog Island in 1822. The specific epithet epithet,, is a Botanical Latin adjective describing the sepals of the plant as having "straight, rigid, close-pressed, rather short bristle-like hairs".
Distribution and habitat
This species of Calytrix is found on sand dunes and sand plains in the south-west of Western Australia from Shark Bay to near Perth and inland to a line between Wiluna and the Fraser Range in the Avon Wheatbelt, Carnarvon, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Yalgoo, where it grows in heath on sand and limestone, laterite and clay soils.
Conservation status
Calytrix strigosa is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.