''Dampiera candicans'' is a plant in the family

Goodeniaceae Goodeniaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Asterales. It contains about 404 species in twelve genera. The family is distributed mostly in Australia, except for the genus ''Scaevola (plant), Scaevo ...

, native to

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 ...

and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Description

''Dampiera candicans'' is an erect shrub growing to a height of 70 cm tall, with stems covered in brownish or greyish dense intertwined hairs. The upper surface of the leaves usually lose their covering but may have a few large coarse hairs. The lower leaf surface is always has a covering of dense intertwined hairs. The leaf lamina is 3-35 mm by 6-19 mm wide on a stalk (petiole) which is 3-10 mm long. The flowers occur in spikes which are 13-28 cm long. The sepals are about 0.1 mm long and hidden beneath hairs. The fruit is ellipsoidal to obovoid and about 2 mm long. It flowers from April to August, and is distinguished from ''

Dampiera cinerea ''Dampiera'' is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plants in the family Goodeniaceae, all of which are endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus ''Dampiera'' are subshrubs or herbs with sessile leaves, flowers with five small sepals and b ...

'' by its dentate leaf margins and its longer flower spikes.

Distribution & habitat

It is found in north-western Western Australia and the west of the Northern Territory, growing on sandy and lateric soils.

Taxonomy & etymology

It was first described 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 ...

in 1876. The specific epithet, ''candicans'', is a Latin adjective, ''candicans'', meaning "white", "whitish" or "having white woolly hairs".

References

External links

''Dampiera candicans'' occurrence data
from

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgamat ...

candicans Plants described in 1876 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller {{Asterales-stub