Ptilotus lanatus


Ptilotus lanatus is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae and is endemic to northern Western Australia. It is an erect, perennial herb with stem leaves arranged alternately and oval to cylindrical spikes of white or pink flowers.

Description

Ptilotus lanatus is a perennial herb, that typically grows to a height of and has several more or less erect stems. Its stem leaves are arranged alternately, mostly long and wide. There are no leaves at the base of the plant. The flowers are densely arranged in oval or cylindrical spikes with white pink to pinkish-mauve flowers. There are colourless bracts about long with a prominent midrib and similar bracteoles. The outer tepals are long and the inner tepals long. The style is long and centrally fixed to the ovary.

Taxonomy

Ptilotus lanatus was first formally described in 1849 by Alfred Moquin-Tandon in de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham. The specific epithet means 'woolly, covered with tangled hairs'.

Distribution

This species of Ptilotus grows on sand dunes in the Central Kimberley, Dampierland, and Great Sandy Desert bioregions of northern Western Australia.