''Bursaria calcicola'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Pittosporaceae Pittosporaceae is a family of flowering plants that consists of 200–240 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in 9 genera. Habitats range from tropical to temperate climates of the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Oceanian, and Australasian realms. T ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to a restricted area near Wombeyan Caves in New South Wales. It is a spiny, hairy, erect or sprawling shrub with clustered, narrowly elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, white flowers with triangular

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

s, cream-coloured petals and flattened fruit.

Description

''Bursaria calcicola'' is an erect or sprawling shrub than typically grows to a height of less than , its foliage covered with hairs flattened against the surface and its branches armed with spines. The leaves are clustered,

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, about long, wide and toothed on the edges near the ends. The flowers are white arranged in groups on the ends of branches, sometimes on short side shoots, each flower on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

with five distinctive, triangular sepals long and free from each other. The five petals spread from the base, are cream-coloured and long. The five stamens are free from each other, with the filament much shorter than the anthers, and the pistil is hairy and white. Flowering occurs in late spring and the fruit is a flattened capsule in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Bursaria calcicola'' was first formally described in 1999 by Lindy W. Cayzer,

Michael Crisp Michael Douglas Crisp (born 1950) is an emeritus professor in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University located in Canberra. In 1976 he gained a PhD from the University of Adelaide, studying long-term vegetation chan ...

and Ian Telford in the journal ''

Australian Systematic Botany ''Australian Systematic Botany'' is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published by CSIRO Publishing. It is devoted to publishing original research, and sometimes review articles, on topics related to systematic botany, such as bio ...

'' from specimens collected by Cayzer in Wombeyan Caves Reserve. The specific epithet (''calcicola'') means "limestone-dweller".

Distribution and habitat

This bursaria is only known from the Wombeyan Caves area where it grows in woodland on soils derived from limestone.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15590482 calcicola Pittosporaceae Plants described in 1999 Flora of New South Wales