Verticordia apecta
Verticordia apecta, commonly known as scruffy verticordia or Hay River featherflower, is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender shrub with linear lower stem leaves, narrow elliptic upper stem leaves and elliptic to egg-shaped leaves near the flowers. There are only a few flowers in the upper leaf axils on relatively long stalks and the sepals are deep pink with fine, white fringes.
Description
Verticordia albida is a slender, erect shrub with a single main stem and which grows to a height of between. Its leaves differ from each other, depending on their position on the plant. The lower leaves are linear in shape, triangular in cross-section and long. Those further up the stems are elliptic in shape and about long. Leaves near the flowers are elliptic or egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base and triangular in cross section.The flowers are few in number, arranged in some of the upper leaf axils on stalks long. The sepals are deep pink and long including their lobes and fine white fringe. The petals are roughly circular in shape, deep pink, long with four to six main long pointed lobes and many smaller lobes. The style is about long with short hairs around its end. Flowering time is mostly in November to January.
Taxonomy and naming
Verticordia apecta was first formally described by Elizabeth George and Alex George in 1994 from specimens collected near Mount Barker and the description was published in Nuytsia. The specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek word ἄπεκτος meaning "uncombed", referring to the untidy appearance of the flowers of this species.George placed this species in subgenus Verticordia, section Catocalypta along with V. roei, V. inclusa, V. insignis, V. habrantha, V. lehmannii and V. pritzelii.