Synaphea floribunda
Synaphea floribunda is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a prostrate to ascending shrub with low branches covered with soft hairs at first, lance-shaped, flat leaves with two or three teeth near the tip, spikes of crowded yellow flowers and broadly oval fruit.
Description
Synaphea floribunda is a prostrate to ascending shrub that typically grows to high and up to wide, with low-lying stems that are covered with soft hairs at first, later becoming glabrous. The leaves are lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole long, the leaves sometimes with two or three teeth near the tip. The flowers are yellow and borne in crowded spikes long on hairy, sometimes branched peduncles long. There are hairy, spreading bracts long at the base of the peduncles. The perianth opens widely, the upper tepal is long and wide, the lower tepal long. The stigma is crescent moon-shaped with two horns, long and wide. Flowering occurs from September to November and the fruit is broadly oval, long and covered with soft hairs.
Taxonomy
Synaphea floribunda was first formally described in 1995 by Alex George in the Flora of Australia from specimens he collected near the edge of the Darling Scarp, south-east of Carpel in 1993. The specific epithet means 'flowering profusely'.
Distribution and habitat
This species of Synaphea grows is sandy loam and gravelly sand in woodland and forest and is common between Yallingup and Ludlow and in scattered places to Lake Muir and Kojonup in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status
Synaphea flexuosa is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.