Hibbertia fractiflexa
Hibbertia fractiflexa is a species of flowering plant in the family Dilleniaceae and is endemic to the Northern Territory. It is a small, multi-stemmed shrub with hairy foliage, elliptic leaves, and yellow flowers arranged in leaf axils with sixteen to twenty-two stamens arranged in groups around the two carpels.
Description
Hibbertia fractiflexa is a multi-stemmed shrublet that typically grows to a height of with long, wiry, scrambling shoots. The leaves are elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged singly, in pairs or three in leaf axils on a thread-like peduncle long, with triangular bracts long. The five sepals are joined at the base, the two outer sepal lobes long wide, and the inner lobes narrower. The five petals are wedge-shaped, yellow, long and there are sixteen to twenty-two stamens arranged in groups around the two carpels, each carpel with two ovules.Taxonomy
Hibbertia fractiflexa was first formally described in 2010 by Hellmut R. Toelken in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens from specimens collected by and near Waterfall Creek in 1984. The specific epithet means "zigzag" referring to the shape of the long shoots.In the same journal, Toelken described four subspecies and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Hibbertia fractiflexa subsp. brachyblastis Toelken has leaves wide with sixteen to twenty scales across the middle part of the upper leaf surface, sixteen to twenty stamens and flowers from December to June;Hibbertia fractiflexa subsp. filicaulis Toelken has leaves wide and flowers from February to June;Hibbertia fractiflexa Toelken subsp. fractiflexa has leaves wide with twelve to sixteen scales across the middle part of the upper leaf surface and flowers from November to June;Hibbertia fractiflexa subsp. serotina Toelken is similar to subspecies brachyblastis but has twenty-four to twenty-six stamens and flowers in May.