Pimelea serpyllifolia
Pimelea serpyllifolia, commonly known as thyme riceflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to southern Australia. It is an erect shrub with narrowly elliptic to spatula-shaped leaves, and compact heads of 4 to 12 yellow, yellowish-green or white flowers surrounded by 2 or 4 leaf-like involucral bracts. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants.
Description
Pimelea serpyllifolia is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of, but is rarely stunted or prostrate in exposed positions. The leaves are borne in opposite pairs on glabrous stems and are crowded, narrowly elliptic to spatula-shaped, long and wide. The leaves are glabrous, and the same shade of green on both sides. The flowers are borne in compact heads of 4 to 12 yellow, yellowish-green or white flowers surrounded by 2 or 4 sessile, elliptic involucral bracts long and wide, female and male flowers borne on separate plants. The floral tube of female plants is long, the sepals long, and of male plants and long respectively.Taxonomy
Pimelea serpyllifolia was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. The specific epithet, serpyllifolia means "wild thyme-leaved".In 1988, Barbara Lynette Rye named two subspecies of P. serpyllifolia in the journal Nuytsia, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Pimelea serpyllifolia subsp. occidentalis Rye differs from the autonym in having stems that are hairy below the flower heads, and flowers that are at least sparsely hairy inside.Pimelea serpyllifolia Rye subsp. serpyllifolia has glabrous stems and flowers that are usually glabrous inside.