''Conothamnus trinervis'' is a plant species in the family

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

endemic to Western Australia. It is a shrub with thick, stiff stems, leaves with a sharp point on the tip and heads of usually cream-coloured flowers.

Description

''Conothamnus trinervis'' is an erect or straggly shrub that typically grows to a height of and has thick, stiff branches. The leaves are usually arranged in opposite pairs, sometimes in whorls of three, long with three veins and a sharp point on the tip. The flowers are yellow, cream-coloured or white, occasionally purple and arranged in heads about across. Each group of three flowers has a

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

at its base and the flowers have five sepals and five

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s. (The other two species of ''

Conothamnus ''Conothamnus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. They are woody shrubs similar to melaleucas but differ in that their leaves are usually arranged in opposite pairs ...

'' lack petals, and the flowers are in groups of two.) Flowering occurs between August and October.

Taxonomy and naming

''Conothamnus trinervis'' was first formally described in 1839 by

John Lindley John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. Early years Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...

who published the description in ''

A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony", also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Sketch Veg. Swan R.'', is an 1839 article by John Lindley on the flora of the Swan River Colony. Nearly 300 new species were published in it, ...

''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''trinervis'') is derived from the Latin prefix ''tri-'' meaning "three" and ''nervus'' meaning "sinew" or "tendon", and refers to the three-veined leaf.

Distribution and habitat

This shrub is found along the west coast on the

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

and in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia where it grows in deep sandy lateritic soils in kwongan.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15400919 trinervis Plants described in 1839 Taxa named by John Lindley