Eremaea beaufortioides
Eremaea beaufortioides is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub with oval to egg-shaped leaves, and orange flowers in spring. Flowers appear in groups of one to six on the ends of long branches formed in the previous year.
Description
Eremaea beaufortioides is a spreading shrub growing to a height of. Its leaves are long, wide, flat, linear to broad egg-shaped and with up to 7 veins sometimes visible on the lower surface. There is variation in leaf size and shape between the three varieties of the species.The flowers are orange-coloured and arranged in groups of up to six on the ends of the branches of the previous year's growth. There are 5 sepals and 5 petals long. The stamens, which give the flower its colour, are arranged in 5 bundles, each containing 34 to 48 stamens. Flowering occurs from September to December and is followed by fruits which are woody capsules. The capsules are more or less barrel-shaped, smooth and long and wide.
Taxonomy and naming
Eremaea beaufortioides was first formally described in 1867 by George Bentham in Flora Australiensis. The specific epithet is presumably a reference to the similarity of this species to a species of Beaufortia since εἶδος is an Ancient Greek word meaning “form" or "likeness”.There are three varieties:Eremaea beaufortioides var. beaufortioides has thin leaves with 5 or more veins and flowers with a glabrous hypanthium;Eremaea beaufortioides var. lachnostanthe has thin leaves with 3 veins and flowers with a densely hairy hypanthium;Eremaea beaufortioides var. microphylla has small, thick leaves with fewer than 3 veins which may be hard to see.