Dodonaea ericoides
Dodonaea ericoides is a species of plant in the family Sapindaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with simple, usually linear leaves arranged in opposite pairs and with the edges turned strongly down, flowers arranged singly with eight stamens, and four-angled capsules with lobe-like appendages.
Description
Dodonaea ericoides is an erect, dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of up to. Its leaves are usually linear, long and wide with the edges strongly turned down, sometimes with two to four lobes or teeth near the ends. The flowers are borne singly on a pedicel long, with four egg-shaped sepals long, eight stamens and an ovary covered with soft hairs. Flowering occurs from March to June, and the fruit is a four-angled, more or less round or broadly egg-shaped capsule, long, wide, with crusty, lobe-like appendages wide.
Taxonomy and naming
Dodonaea ericoides was first formally described in 1845 by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel in the Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae from specimens collected in the inland of Western Australia. The specific epithet means 'Erica-like'.
This species of Dodonaea grows in woodland and low heath on rocky hillsides and is restricted to a few populations from north of Geraldton to south of Perth in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Dodonaea ericoides is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.