Kunzea eriocalyx


Kunzea eriocalyx is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to a small area on the south coast of Western Australia. It is a shrub with spreading main stems with a few short side branches and which grows to a height of. It blooms between August and October producing pink flowers.

Description

Kunzea eriocalyx is a shrub with spreading stems with a few short branches and which grows to a height of. The leaves are mostly clustered on the ends of the side branches which also have groups of flowers in the flowering season. The leaves are linear, more or less shaped like a baseball bat, long and less than wide with a petiole up to long. The flowers are arranged in heads of mostly five to seven on the ends of the side branches. The flowers are surrounded by hairy bracts long and wide and shorter pairs of bracteoles. The floral cup is long and the five sepals are lance-shaped, hairy and about long. The five petals are long and pink and there eleven to fifteen stamens. Flowering occurs between August and October and is followed by fruit which are urn-shaped capsules with the sepals attached.

Taxonomy and naming

Kunzea clavata was first formally described in 1860 by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller and the description was published in the work Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. The type specimen was collected in the Middle Mount Barren. The specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek words erion meaning "wool" and kalyx meaning "cup", "outer envelope of a flower" or sepals.

Distribution and habitat

Often found among rocky outcrops of quartzite, K. eriocalyx grows in a small area on the coast at the boundary of the Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia centred around the Fitzgerald River National Park where it grows in sandy clay soils of laterite.

Conservation

Kunzea eriocalyx is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.