Calytrix Ecalycata

''Calytrix ecalycata'' is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender, erect shrub with linear to narrowly elliptic leaves, and yellow flowers with 35 to 50 stamens in several rows.

Description

''Calytrix ecalycata'' is a slender, erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to . Its leaves are arranged alternately, elliptic, linear to narrowly elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are borne in clusters wide on a peduncle about long. The floral leaves are shorter and broader than the stem leaves, linear or elliptic, long and wide. The floral tube is glabrous long, has 4 ribs. There are no sepals and the petals are yellow, narrowly elliptic to oblong, long and about wide. There are 35 to 50 yellow stamens long in several rows. Flowering time varies with subspecies.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1943 by Charles Gardner who gave it the name ''Calythropsis aurea'' in the ''Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia'' from specimens collected near the Arrowsmith River by William Blackall. In 1990, Lyndley Craven found the genus ''Calythropsis'' to be congeneric with ''Calytrix'' in '' Australian Systematic Botany'', and gave it the new name ''Calytrix ecalycata''. The specific epithet (''ecalycata'') means 'having no calyx'. In 2004, Greg Keighery described 3 subspecies of ''Calytrix ecalycata'' in the journal '' Nuytsia'' and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
* ''Calytrix ecalycata'' subsp. ''brevis'' Keighery is a shrub tall and wide with linear to narrowly elliptic leaves long, floral leaves and wide, petals wide, and flowers from August to October.
* ''Calytrix ecalycata'' Craven subsp. ''ecalycata'' is a shrub tall and wide with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves long, floral leaves and wide, petals wide, and flowers in August and September.
* ''Calytrix ecalycata'' subsp. ''pubescens'' Keighery is a shrub tall and wide with linear leaves long, floral leaves and wide, petals wide, and flowers in September.

Distribution and habitat

This species of ''Calytrix'' grows on sandplains, flats, ridges, hills and roadsides between Port Gregory and Regans Ford in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia. The 3 subspecies occur in the same area, subspecies ''brevis'' on sandplains and low rises in mallee shrubland and mixed shrubland from Coorow to near Moora and south to Regans Ford, subsp. ''ecalycata'' in winter-wet wandoo woodland, '' Melaleuca uncinata'' shrubland, mixed low heath and ''Eucalyptus eudesmioides'' mallee. Subspecies ''pubescens'' is only known from the type location south-west of Moora, where it grows in wandoo woodland.

Conservation status

The species ''Calytrix ecalycata'' is listed as "not threatened" but subspecies ''brevis'' and ''ecalycata'' are classed as " Priority Three by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions meaning that they are poorly known and known from only a few locations but are not under imminent threat, and subspecies ''pubescens'' as " Priority One" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is known from only one or a few locations that are potentially at risk.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15395722, from2=Q51055564, from3=Q100450066, from4=Q51055576

Plants described in 1990
ecalycata
Flora of Western Australia
Taxa named by Lyndley Craven