''Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus'' is a plant in the citrus

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Derm ...

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 elsew ...

to eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is a slender or straggling shrub with simple or

trifoliate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

leaves and pink and white four-

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 ...

led flowers. It is

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 ...

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 ...

Description

''Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus'' is a slender or straggling shrub that grows to a height of with either simple leaves long or trifoliate leaves wide in outline. Pink and white flowers with four

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 and four

s appear between March and December.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1863 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

who gave it the name ''Boronia baeckeacea'' in '' Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae''. Mueller did not give a reason for using 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 ...

(''baeckeacea''), but noted that the shrub has "a stature of ome species of''

Baeckea ''Baeckea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, all but one endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus ''Baeckea'' are shrubs or small trees with leaves arranged in opposite pairs, white to deep pink flowers with five s ...

''. In a 2013 paper in the journal ''

Taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

'',

Marco Duretto Marco Duretto (born 1964) is a manager and senior research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney in Australia. His primary research interests are systematics and conservation of Rutaceae, Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, Stylidiaceae and evolut ...

and others changed the name to ''Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus'' on the basis of

cladistic analysis Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived chara ...

. Two subspecies were described by

Paul G.Wilson Paul Graham Wilson (born 1928) is an Australian botanist. He has been a most prolific contributor to the journal ''Nuytsia'', contributing to the first issue in 1970 and to the 12th volume in 1998, which was dedicated to him for his contribution ...

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 ...

'' and the names have subsequently been changed to reflect the change in the genus name: * ''Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus'' subsp. ''baeckeaceus'' (the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

) which has simple, erect, almost round leaves long and grows in a variety of situations between

Pingrup Pingrup is a small town in the Great Southern (Western Australia), Great Southern region of Western Australia. The name of the town is Indigenous Australian in origin and was the name of a lake that is close to the townsite. The meaning of Ping ...

and Mount Ragged in the

Cape Arid National Park Cape Arid National Park is a List of national parks of Australia, national park located in Western Australia, southeast of Perth. The park is situated east of Esperance, Western Australia, Esperance and lies on the shore of the South coast of W ...

; * ''Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus'' subsp. ''patulus'' which has more or less spreading, simple or trifoliate, broadly elliptic to egg-shaped leaves long and grows in mallee near Mount Ney and Mount Heywood north-east of Esperance.

Conservation

Subspecies ''baeckeaceus'' is classed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

but subspecies ''patulus'' is classes as "

Priority One Prioritization is an action that arranges items or activities in order of importance. Priority may refer specifically to: Law * Priority or right of way on the road, see Traffic § Priority (right of way) ** Priority signs, a traffic sign that ...

" by the Government of Western Australia

, meaning that it is known from only one or a few locations which are potentially at risk.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q106901887, from2=Q106901896 baeckeaceus Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1863 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller