Woollsia
Woollsia pungens, commonly known as snow heath, is the sole species in the flowering plant genus Woollsia in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a small shrub with egg-shaped leaves with a heart-shaped base, white to dark pink, tube-shaped flowers and small capsules containing many small seeds.
Description
Woollsia pungens is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy stems. The leaves are egg-shaped, long and wide on a petiole up to long, and have a rounded to heart-shaped base and a sharp point on the end.The flowers are white to dark pink, in diameter and sweetly-scented. There are hairy bracts and sepals long. The petals are joined at the base, forming a tube long with spreading lobes long. Flowering occurs in most months, and the fruit is a capsule about in diameter, containing many small seeds.
Taxonomy
Antonio José Cavanilles described the species as Epacris pungens in 1797, from material collected in the Sydney district. Victorian state botanist Ferdinand von Mueller proposed the new genus Woollsia in 1873 in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae, though did not publish its new binomial name until 1875. The genus name honours William Woolls and the specific epithet means "ending in a sharp, hard point".Genetic analysis indicates that this species is an early offshoot of a lineage that includes Lysinema ciliatum and the genus Epacris.