Philotheca eremicola

Philotheca eremicola is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a small shrub similar to Philotheca coateana but has smaller leaves and different sepals.

Description

Philotheca eremicola is a shrub that grows to a height of about and has glabrous branchlets. The leaves are crowded near the ends of the branchlets, about long, glossy green and glandular-warty. The flowers are borne singly on the ends of the branchlets on slender pedicels about long. There are five egg-shaped to narrow triangular sepals about long with prominent brown glands and five elliptical, white petals with a pink midline and long. The ten stamens are free from each other and hairy.

Taxonomy and naming

Philotheca eremicola was first formally described in 1998 by Paul Wilson in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected by D.J. Pearson near the Tjirrkarli Community in the Gibson Desert.

Distribution

This species of philotheca is only known from the type location in the Gibson Desert.

Conservation status

This species is classified as "Priority One" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife, meaning that it is known from only one or a few locations which are potentially at risk.