Hibbertia lepidocalyx


Hibbertia lepidocalyx is a species of flowering plant in the family Dilleniaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a shrub with thick, linear, cylindrical leaves and yellow flowers with nine or ten stamens in a single group on one side of the two carpels.

Description

Hibbertia lepidocalyx is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has glabrous branchlets, at least when they are mature. The leaves are spirally arranged, sometimes crowded, thick, linear and cylindrical, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils on a peduncle long with bracts up to long. The flowers are in diameter with five sepals joined at the base, long but varying in length. The five petals are yellow, egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base and long with a deep notch at the tip. There are nine or ten stamens fused at the base, on one side of the two scaly carpels that each contain three to six ovules.

Taxonomy

Hibbertia lepidocalyx was first formally described in 2002 Judith R. Wheeler in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected near Lake King in 1968. The specific epithet means "scaly sepals".
In the same journal, Wheeler described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Hibbertia lepidocalyx J.R.Wheeler subsp. lepidocalyx has smooth leaves and flowers wide from August to September;Hibbertia lepidocalyx subsp. tuberculata J.R.Wheeler has warty leaves and flowers wide in July.
The subspecies epithet tuberculata mean refers to the wart-like lumps on the upper leaf surface.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies lepidocalyx grows in mallee and shrubland in the Mallee biogeographic region, and subspecies tuberculata is found in woodland and heath but is only known from two populations in the Coolgardie bioregion.

Conservation status

Hibbertia lepidocalyx and subspecies lepidocalyx are classified as "not threatened" but susp. tuberculata is classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.