Synaphea hians
Synaphea hians is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a prostrate or low-lying shrub with hairy branchlets, wedge-shaped leaves with three lobes, spikes of more or less crowded yellow flowers and broadly oval fruit.
Description
Synaphea hians is a prostrate or low-lying shrub that typically grows to a height of high and up to wide, with hairy stems up to long, that later become glabrous. The leaves are wedge-shaped, more or less wavy with three lobes, long and wide, on a hairy petiole long. The lobes of the leaves are triangular, sometimes with one or two teeth with a small point on the tip. The flowers are yellow and borne in more or less crowded spikes long on a peduncle up to long. There are spreading, hairy, tapered bracts long at the base of the peduncles. The perianth opens widely, the upper tepal gently to strongly curved, long and wide, the lower tepal long. The stigma is oblong with erect to curved horns, long and about wide. Flowering occurs in September and October and the fruit is broadly oval, long and covered with soft hairs.
Taxonomy
Synaphea hians was first formally described in 1995 by Alex George in the Flora of Australia from specimens he collected about east of Busselton on the road to Nannup in 1993. The specific epithet means 'gaping', referring to the perianth.
Distribution and habitat
This species of Synaphea grows on sandy rises in low eucalypt woodland from east of Busselton to south of Collie in the Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status
Synaphea hians is listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.