Verticordia roei
Verticordia roei, commonly known as Roe's featherflower is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with narrow leaves and is often covered with masses of creamy-white coloured flowers in late spring.
Description
Verticordia roei is a shrub which grows to a height of with a single main stem at its base. The leaves on the stems are linear to narrow elliptic in shape, triangular in cross-section, long and have a rounded end.The flowers are scented and arranged in corymb-like groups on erect stalks from long. The floral cup is broadly hemispherical, about long, ribbed and covered with short hairs. The sepals are creamy-white, sometimes pink, long, with 5 to 7 long-hairy or feathery lobes. The petals are a similar colour to the sepals, long, dished with small teeth around its edge. The style is long, with a few short hairs. Flowering time is from October to November.
Taxonomy and naming
Verticordia roei was first formally described by Stephan Endlicher in 1838 and the description was published in Stirpium Australasicarum Herbarii Hugeliani Decades Tres. The type specimen was collected by John Septimus Roe. The specific epithet honours Roe, the first surveyor-general of Western Australia.In 1991, Alex George described two subspecies of V. roei in the journal Nuytsia, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Verticordia roei Endl. subsp. roei has stamens long and styles long.Verticordia roei subsp. meiogona A.S.George has stamens long and styles long.
George placed V. roei in subgenus Verticordia, section Catocalypta along with V. inclusa, V. apecta, V. insignis, V. habrantha, V. lehmannii and V. pritzelii.