Rinzia orientalis

Rinzia orientalis, commonly known as desert heath-myrtle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with elliptic to narrowly oblong leaves and white or pale pink flowers usually with ten stamens.

Description

Rinzia orientalis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and is usually single-stemmed at the base. The leaves are elliptic to narrowly oblong, long, long and thick on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils and are wide, borne on a pedicel long with bracteoles long but that fall off as the flower opens. The five sepals are dark red with a white edge, long and the five petals are white or pale pink and long. There are usually ten stamens and the style is long. Flowering mainly occurs from August to November and the fruit is in diameter containing kidney-shaped seeds.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described in 1838 by John Lindley who gave it the name Baeckea crassifolia in Thomas Mitchell's book Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia. In 2017, Barbara Lynette Rye changed the name to Rinzia orientalis in the journal Nuytsia. The specific epithet means "pertaining to the east" referring to the species' distribution compared to other members of the genus.

Distribution and habitat

Desert myrtle-heath grows in mallee scrub on sand dunes and sandplains from the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island in South Australia to south-western New South Wales and to near Ballarat in Victoria.