Philotheca nutans


Philotheca nutans is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small, densely-branched shrub with club-shaped to cylindrical, glandular-warty leaves and pendent, pale yellow to pale red flowers arranged singly in leaf axils.

Description

Philotheca nutans is a densely-branched shrub that grows to a height of with glandular-warty branchlets. The leaves are cylindrical to club-shaped, about long and glandular-warty on the lower surface. The flowers are pendent and borne singly in leaf axils, each flower on a thin pedicel about long. There are five broadly egg-shaped sepals about long and five broadly egg-shaped, pale yellow to pale red petals. The ten stamens are densely woolly-hairy. Flowering occurs from July to September.

Taxonomy and naming

This philotheca was first formally described in 1970 by Paul Wilson who gave it the name Eriostemon nutans and published the description in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected by Charles Gardner in 1953. In 1998, Wilson changed the name to Philotheca nutans in the same journal.

Distribution and habitat

Philotheca nutans grows in woodland near the Wubin, [Western Australia|Wubin]-Paynes Find road in the south-west of Western Australia.

Conservation status

Philotheca nutans is classified as "Declared [Rare and Priority Flora List|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.