Cyanothamnus inflexus
Cyanothamnus inflexus is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to tablelands near the New South Wales - Queensland border in Australia. It is an erect, woody shrub with pinnate leaves and up to seven white to pink four-petalled flowers in the leaf axils. Boronia bipinnata is similar but has larger, bipinnate or tripinnate leaves and smaller sepals and petals.
Description
Cyanothamnus inflexus is an erect, woody shrub that grows to a height of about and a width of about. The leaves are pinnate, long and wide in outline on a petiole long. The end leaflet is linear, long and wide, the side leaflets similar or longer. Up to three, sometimes up to seven white to pink flowers are arranged on a stalk long. The four sepals are triangular, mostly glabrous, long and wide. The four petals are long, sometimes with a few hairs. The eight stamens are hairy and the stigma is about the same width as the style. Flowering occurs from June to December and the fruit are long and wide.Taxonomy and naming
This species was first formally described in 2003 by Marco F. Duretto who gave it the name Boronia inflexa in the journal Muelleria from a specimen collected in Girraween [National Park]. In a 2013 paper in the journal Taxon, Marco Duretto and others changed the name to Cyanothamnus inflexus on the basis of cladistic analysis. The specific epithet is a Latin word referring to the edges of the sepals, near their tip.In the same 2003 paper, Duretto described four new subspecies. The names have subsequently been changed to reflect the change in the genus name:Cyanothamnus inflexus Duretto subsp. inflexus has its branches and leaves covered with minute, soft hairs, and petals long;Cyanothamnus inflexus subsp. montiazureus is glabrous with the end leaflet long and wide;Cyanothamnus inflexus subsp. grandiflorus has its branches and leaves covered with minute, soft hairs, and petals long;Cyanothamnus inflexus subsp. torringtonensis is glabrous with the end leaflet long and wide.