Dodonaea microzyga
Dodonaea microzyga, commonly known as brilliant hopbush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a spreading, dioecious shrub with imparipinnate leaves with two to ten lance-shaped, egg-shaped or spoon-shaped leaflets, flowers arranged singly or in pairs usually with eight stamens, a hairy ovary, and capsules with 3 or 4 wings.
Description
Dodonaea microzyga is a spreading, dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of up to. Its leaves are imparipinnate, long on a petiole long, with two to ten lance-shaped to broadly obovate leaflets long and wide. The leaflets have a rounded or toothed end and a wedge-shaped base, the end leaflet shorter and lobe-like. The flowers are arranged singly or in pairs, each flower on a pedicel long. The four sepals are egg-shaped, long but that fall off as the flowers develop. There are usually eight stamens and the ovary is covered with soft hairs. Flowering occurs from June to September and the fruit is an elliptic capsule long, wide and mostly glabrous with three, rarely four membranous wings wide.Taxonomy
Dodonaea microzyga was first formally described in 1863 by Ferdinand von Mueller based on plant material collected in the vicinity of Neales River in South Australia during an expedition of John McDouall Stuart. The description was published in Enumeration of the plants collected during Mr. K.Macd.Stuart's expeditions across the Australian continent in 1860, 1861 and 1862, published in the Victorian Parliamentary Papers. The specific epithet means 'a small cross-bar at the end of a pole' used to yoke two animals to a plough, referring to the small, pinnate leaves of this species.In 1984, Judith Gay West described the variety acrolobata of D. microzyga in the journal Brunonia, and that name, and the name of the autonym are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Dodonaea microzyga var. acrolobata J.G.West has leaves long, usually with 3 or 4 leaflets long and wide, the end leaflet shorter than the laterals.Dodonaea microzyga F.Muell. var. microzyga has leaves long, with 2 or 3 leaflets usually long and wide.