Sannantha collina

Sannantha collina is a species in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a shrub with lance-shaped leaves and groups of 3 to 7 white flowers arranged in leaf axils.

Description

Sannantha collina is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has grey, scaly to fibrous bark. Its leaves are lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are up to in diameter and arranged in leaf axils in groups of 3 to 7 on a peduncle long. Each flower is on a pedicel long with 2 bracts at the base, but that fall off as the flowers develop. The floral tube is long, the sepal lobes long. The petals are white, long and wide and there are usually 8 to 11 stamens. Flowering mainly occurs between November and March and the fruit is a hemispherical capsule about in diameter.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1999 by Anthony Bean who gave it the name Babingtonia collina in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected on Karana Downs in 1995. In 2007, Peter [Gordon Wilson] changed the name to Sannantha collina in Australian Systematic Botany. The specific epithet means "relating to hills", referring to the usual habitat of this species.

Distribution and habitat

Sannantha collina grows in shrubland and forest in isolated populations mainly between Yandina in north-eastern Queensland and Dorrigo, [New South Wales|Dorrigo] in north-eastern New South Wales.