Synaphea oulopha
Synaphea oulopha is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south west of Western Australia. It is small, compact shrub with twice or more divided, pinnatipartite leaves and spikes of yellow, openly spaced flowers.
Description
Synaphea oulopha is a compact shrub with several stems long and covered with shaggy hairs. It has twice or more divided, pinnatipartite leaves, long and wide, the end lobes linear, wide and tapering. The flowers are openly-spaced and borne in spikes up to long on a peduncle up to long on a red rachis with egg-shaped bracts long and hairy. The perianth is glabrous and ascending with a wide opening, the upper tepal long and wide and strongly curved, the lower tepal long and not curved down. The stigma is oblong, long, wide with a more or less glabrous ovary. Flowering occurs from June to August, and the fruit is cylindrical long.
Taxonomy
Synaphea oulopha was first formally described in 1995 by Alex George in the Flora of Australia from specimens he collected near Bunney Road, north-north-east of Eneabba in 1993. The specific epithet means 'no crest', referring to the lack of glands on the ovary, present in all other species of Synaphea.
Distribution and habitat
This species of Synaphea occurs near Nannup in the Geraldton Sandplains bioregion in the south-west of Western Australia, where it grows in clay, gravelly loam and gravel on breakaways in low kwongan.
Conservation status
Synaphea otiostigma 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.