Synaphea flexuosa
Synaphea flexuosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a much-branched, tangled, small shrub with deeply forked leaves with linear, curved to winding lobes, spikes of mostly widely spaced yellow flowers and hairy fruit.
Description
Synaphea flexuosa is a much-branched, tangled small shrub with stems up to long and covered by silky leaf bases. The leaves are deeply three to five times forked, long and wide on a petiole long, the leaves with linear, curved to winding lobes wide. The flowers are yellow and borne in several rather widely spaced spikes long on the ends of branches on hairy peduncles long. There are hairy, widely spreading bracts long. The perianth is more or less horizontal, slightly curved, moderately open and glabrous. The upper tepal is long and wide, the lower tepal long. The stigma is oblong and two-lobed, long and wide. Flowering occurs in September and October and the fruit is long, spreading and covered with soft hairs.
Taxonomy
Synaphea flexuosa was first formally described in 1995 by Alex [George (botanist)|Alex George] in the Flora of [Australia (series)|Flora of Australia] from specimens he collected south-east of Kulin in 1994. The specific epithet means 'zig-zagged', referring to the leaf lobes.
Distribution and habitat
This species of Synaphea grows is sandy loam in tall open shrubland south-east of Kulin and near Nyabing in the Mallee bioregion of south-western Western Australia.
Synaphea flexuosa is listed as "Priority Two" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and from one or a few locations.