Cryptandra gemmata


Cryptandra gemmata is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to the far north of the Northern Territory. It is a shrub with clustered linear leaves and white to creamy-white, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

Cryptandra gemmata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of, its young branchlets covered with star-shaped hairs. Its leaves are linear and needle-shaped in clusters of 3 to 9, each leaf long, wide and sessile, with narrowly triangular stipules long at the base. The upper surface of the leaves is glabrous and the lower surface is rarely visible. The flowers are borne in clusters of 3 to 5 on the ends of branchlets with elliptic brown bracts long at the base. The sepals are white to creamy-white, forming a cylindrical to urn-shaped tube long with lobes long. The petals protrude beyond the sepal tube, and form a hood over the stamens. Flowering has been observed in April, and the fruit is an oval schizocarp long.

Taxonomy and naming

Cryptandra gemmata was first formally described in 2004 by Anthony Bean in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected east of Jabiru in 1989. The specific epithet means "provided with buds", referring to the development of buds around existing flowers and fruits.

Distribution and habitat

This cryptandra grows on sandstone pavement with little or no soil and is only known from near Jabiru in the far north of the Northern Territory.