''Cryptandra dielsii'' is a flowering plant in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

and is endemic to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub with linear to narrowly oblong leaves and dense clusters of white, hairy, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

''Cryptandra dielsii'' is a spreading, intricately-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of high, its young stems densely hairy. The leaves are linear to narrowly oblong, long and wide, on a petiole bout long with

stipule In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...

s long at the base. The edges of the leaves are turned down or rolled under, concealing the lower surface and there is a fine point long on the tip. The flowers are white, borne in dense clusters of 6 to 9, in diameter, surrounded by large involucral bracts, the individual flowers not distinct. The

floral tube In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the Sepal, calyx, the petal, corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and cal ...

is long and densely hairy, the

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 coined b ...

s long and densely hairy. Flowering occurs from July to September.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cryptandra dielsii'' was first formally described in 2007 by

Barbara Lynette Rye Barbara Lynette Rye is an Australian botanist born in 1952. Barbara Rye has been associated with the Western Australian Herbarium, where her work as a taxonomist has been the source of many new descriptions of plants. The number of taxa recorded ...

in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

'' from an unpublished description by Charles Gardner, of specimens he collected near Tammin in 1936. 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 ...

(''dielsii '') honours

Ludwig Diels Dr. Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Prit ...

Distribution and habitat

This cryptandra mainly grows with shrubby she-oak (''

Allocasuarina campestris ''Allocasuarina campestris'', commonly known as the Shrubby she-oak, is a shrub of the she-oak family Casuarinaceae native to Western Australia. The dioecious or monoecious shrub typically grows to a height of and produces red-brown flowers fro ...

'') between

Manmanning Manmanning is a small Wheatbelt town in Western Australia. The name of the town first appeared on charts drawn in 1907, and was the Indigenous Australian name of a soak located close to the townsite. The townsite was originally a railway sidi ...

, Varley and

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Kelmscott and Ravensthorpe. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the tow ...

in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...

and Mallee bioregions of south-western

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Conservation status

''Cryptandra dielsii'' is listed as " Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

, meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15537429 dielsii Rosales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 2007 Taxa named by Barbara Lynette Rye