''Cyanothamnus westringioides'' is a species of erect shrub that is endemic to a small area in the southwest of Western Australia. It has simple, narrow, sessile leaves and pale pink flowers arranged singly in leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

Description

''Cyanothamnus westringioides'' is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and has ascending branches. The leaves are sessile and elliptic, sometimes trifoliate, more or less terete and long. The flowers are borne singly in upper leaf axils on a top-shaped

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 ...

long. There are leaf-like

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 ...

s about long at the base of the flowers. The sepals are prominently glandular, triangular to egg-shaped or pointed and long. The petals are pale pink, thin and glandular, elliptical and long. The

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s are glandular near the tip. Flowering occurs from July to October.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1998 by Paul Wilson and given the name ''Boronia westringioides'' in the journal '' Nuytsia'' from a specimen collected near the road between Hyden and

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

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

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 westringioides'' on the basis of cladistic analysis. 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 ...

(''westringioides'') refers to the similarity of this species to some in the genus ''

Westringia ''Westringia'' is a genus of Australian shrubs. As with other members of the mint family their upper petal (or lip) is divided into two lobes. There are four stamens - the upper two are fertile while the lower two are reduced to staminodes. The l ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

''Cyanothamnus westringioides'' grows on loamy sandplains in a small area north of

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 ...

and east of Hyden.

Conservation

''Cyanothamnus westringioides'' is classified as " Priority Two" 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 ...

meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q106902291 westringioides Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1998 Taxa named by Paul Graham Wilson