Epacris navicularis

Epacris navicularis is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-western Tasmania. It is a shrub with crowded, overlapping egg-shaped leaves arranged in five rows, and bell-shaped white flowers crowded in upper leaf axils.

Description

Epacris navicularis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has softly-hairy young stems. Its leaves are crowded, overlapping and egg-shaped, arranged in five columns along the branches, long and about wide on a short, broad petiole. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils forming a cluster near the ends of branches. The five sepals are broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped, long and the petals are white, joined at the base to form a bell-shaped tube with lobes that are longer than the petal tube. Flowering occurs from January to March.

Taxonomy and naming

Epacris navicularis was first formally described in 1978 by S. Jean Jarman in the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania from specimens collected on Mount Sprent in 1977. The specific epithet means "boat-shaped".

Distribution and habitat

This epacris grows in exposed alpine heathland in south-western Tasmania, including on Frenchmans Cap.