Spyridium cinereum
Spyridium cinereum, commonly known as tiny spiridium, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a low-lying shrub with heart-shaped leaves, the narrower end towards the base, and heads of whitish, shaggy-hairy flowers with brown bracts at the base of the heads.
Description
Spyridium cinereum is a low-lying shrub or subshrub that typically grows to a height of. The leaves are heart-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide with a small point in the centre of the notch. Both surfaces of the leaves are woolly-hairy, especially the upper surface, and the edges of the leaves are rolled under. The heads of flowers are arranged on the ends of branches, each with a leaf and several brown bracts at the base, the head in flattish umbels about in diameter. The sepals are about long, the petals whitish, long and shaggy-hairy on the outside. Flowering occurs from October to January and the fruit is a capsule about long.
Taxonomy
Spyridium cinereum was first formally described in 1957 by Norman Arthur Wakefield in The Victorian Naturalist of specimens he collected near Mallacoota aerodrome. The specific epithet means "ash-coloured".
Distribution
Spyridium cinereum grows in coastal heath and low scrub in disjunct populations near Nadgee in the far south-east of New South Wales, far north-eastern Victoria and in the north-east Grampians.