Hypocalymma gardneri

Hypocalymma gardneri is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to the south west of Western Australia. It is a widely spreading subshrub, with linear leaves and yellow flowers arranged in pairs in leaf axils, with 80 to 105 stamens in several rows.

Description

Hypocalymma gardneri is a widely spreading subshrub with many branches and that typically grows to a height of up to and wide. Its leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, narrowly linear, long and wide on a petiole long. Both sides of the leaves are same shade of green and there are many tiny oil glands on the lower surface. The flowers are sessile and usually arranged in pairs in leaf axils with bracteoles long. The floral tube is long and in diameter and the sepal lobes are long and wide with toothed edges. The petals are yellow, long and there are usually 80 to 105 yellow stamens in several rows, the longest filaments about long. Flowering mainly occurs between July and September and the fruit is a capsule long and in diameter.

Taxonomy

Hypocalymma gardneri was first formally described in 2003 by Arne Strid and Gregory John Keighery in the Nordic Journal of Botany from specimens collected near Mount Peron by Charles Gardner in the Lesueur National Park in 1948. The specific epithet honours the collector of the type of this species.

Distribution and habitat

This species of Hypocalymma grows in open sandplain heath on sandy lateritic soils between Dongara and the Hill River area, in the Geraldton Sandplains bioregion of the south-west of Western Australia.