Synaphea gracillima


Synaphea gracillima is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tufted shrub with several to many stems, pinnatipartite leaves with the end lobes broadly linear to lance-shaped, spikes of yellow flowers and narrowly oval fruit.

Description

Synaphea gracillima is a tufted shrub with several to many branched stems up to long, covered with soft hairs at first. The leaves are pinnatipartite, long and wide with several lobes, on a petiole long. The upper lobes
are also pinnatipartite, the lower lobes less divided, the end lobes broadly linear to lance-shaped, wide, more or less flat and covered with soft hairs when young. The flowers are yellow and borne in more or less openly spaced spikes long and much longer than the leaves.The flowers are borne on a peduncle long with spreading bracts at the base. The perianth opens widely and is glabrous, the upper tepal long and wide, the lower tepal long. The stigma is oblong to crescent moon-shaped, long and wide. Flowering occurs from August to October and the fruit is narrowly egg-shaped, long and covered with a few soft hairs.

Taxonomy

Synaphea gracillima was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the [Swan River Colony] from specimens collected by James Drummond near the Swan [River Colony]. The specific epithet means 'very thin' or 'very slender'.

Distribution and habitat

This species of Synaphaea grows in lateritic soil in jarrah-marri woodland on the Darling plateau between Bindoon and Manjimup, and west to Margaret River and east to Albany in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Synaphea gracillima is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.