Pimelea spinescens
Pimelea spinescens, commonly known as plains rice-flower, spiny rice-flower or prickly pimelea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to Victoria. It is a spreading undershrub with elliptic leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and heads of white, cream-coloured or yellow flowers surrounded by 4 elliptic, leaf-like involucral bracts.
Description
Pimelea spinescens is a spreading, stunted, long-lived undershrub that typically grows to a height of. It has a deep taproot and its stems are glabrous, becoming spiny as they mature. The leaves are narrowly elliptic or elliptic, long and wide. The flowers are arranged in heads of 6 to 12 surrounded by 4 elliptic, sessile, leaf-like involucral bracts long and wide, male and female flowers usually on separate plants. The flowers are white, cream-coloured or yellow, the heads of male flowers erect and female heads drooping. The flower tube is long, the sepals long, and the stamens are shorter than the sepals. Flowering occurs in June and July.Taxonomy
Pimelea spinescens was first formally described in 1988 by Barbara Lynette Rye in Flora of Australia from specimens collected by near Myers Creek, in 1980. The specific epithet means "becoming thorny".In the same publication, Rye described two subspecies of P. spinescens, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Pimelea spinescens subsp. pubiflora Rye has hairy pedicels, and pale to bright lemon-yellow flowers that are hairy on the outside.Pimelea spinescens Rye subsp. spinescens has glabrous pedicels, and cream-coloured to white flowers that are glabrous on the outside.