Conostylis androstemma

Conostylis androstemma is a tufted perennial plant species in the family Haemodoraceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. Plants grow to between 10 and 30 cm high and produce cream to pale yellow flowers between May and August in the species' native range.

Description

Conostylis androstemma has green, hairless, terete leaves that are long and about in diameter. The flowers are borne on pedicels that are long, with bracts long and wide at the base. The flowers are white to cream-coloured or yellow, long, hairy and radially symmetrical with lobes that are long. The six stamens are in one level, the anthers long and the style long. Flowering occurs from May to August.
The plant resprouts from its rhizomes, after fire.
It is easily distinguished from Conostylis argentea by its terete hairless leaves.

Taxonomy

Originally named Androstemma junceum and described by John Lindley in 1840 in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony, The species was assigned to the genus Conostylis by botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1873 in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae and renamed Conostylis androstemma.

Distribution and habitat

Conostylis androstemma grows in lateritic gravel and yellow sand on screes and hilltops, and occurs in south-western Western Australia from Kalbarri National Park to Perth and York in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Yalgoo bioregions of south-western Western Australia.