Synaphea media
Synaphea media is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south of Western Australia. It is an erect, multi-stemmed shrub with three-part leaves, the lobes also three-part, the end lobes triangular to lance-shaped, spikes of moderately crowded yellow flowers, and oval fruit.
Description
Synaphea media is an erect, multi-stemmed shrub covered with soft hairs at first, later glabrous, and with stems up to long. Its leaves are three-part, long and wide, on a petiole long, the lobes also three part, the end lobes triangular to lance-shaped, wide. The flowers are borne in moderately crowded spikes up to long on a peduncle up to long and covered with soft hairs pressed against the surface. There are egg-shaped, hairy bracts long at the base of the peduncle. The perianth has a wide opening, the upper tepal long and wide, the lower tepal long. The stigma is oblong, slightly constricted and shallowly notched, concave, long, wide with a hairy ovary. Flowering occurs from August to October, and the fruit is oval, about long and hairy.
Taxonomy
Synaphea media was first formally described in 1995 by Alex George in the Flora of Australia from specimens collected near Horwick Hill by Anthony Orchard in 1968. The specific epithet means 'intermdiate' between two other species.
Distribution and habitat
This species grows in sand in kwongan between Cheyne Beach and Howick Hill and in the Stirling Range in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains and Jarrah Forest bioregions in the south of Western Australia.