Micromyrtus trudgenii

Micromyrtus trudgenii is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to a small area of inland Western Australia. It is an erect, open shrub with narrowly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and yellow flowers with 10 stamens.

Description

Micromyrtus trudgenii is an erect, open shrub that typically grows to a height of and at least wide. Its leaves are very narrowly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole long usually with 7 to 17 oil glands on each side of the midvein. The flowers are arranged in racemes in 6 to 15 upper leaf axils and are usually in diameter on a peduncle long. The floral tube is terete and long with 10 ribs. The sepals are about long and wide. The petals are yellow, widely spreading and broadly elliptic, and there are 10 stamens. Flowering has been observed between June and October and the fruit is long and wide, containing a single seed.

Taxonomy

Micromyrtus trudgenii was first formally described in 2007 by Barbara Lynette Rye in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected by Joseph Zvonko Weber west of Paynes Find in 1975. The specific epithet honours Malcolm Eric Trudgen.

Distribution and habitat

This species is found on the tops of hills and ridges of banded ironstone or dolerite in a small area south-east of Yalgoo in the Yalgoo bioregion of inland Western Australia.

Conservation status

Micromyrtus trudgenii is listed as "Priority Three" meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.