''Dampiera incana'', commonly known as the hoary dampiera, is a flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae 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 Western Australia. It is a perennial herb with grey foliage and blue-purple flowers.

Description

''Dampiera incana'' is an upright, many-branched perennial high with whitish to grey hairs. The leaves are oval to oblong-elliptic shaped, margins smooth or toothed, upper and lower surfaces densely covered in short matted hairs, long, wide and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

. The mostly single

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

are borne in clusters in leaf axils on a branch long, individual flowers on a

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, bracteoles long and oblong-elliptic shaped. The corolla is long, wings long. Flowering occurs in February, April to September or December and the fruit is egg-shaped, long and becoming smooth in patches.

Taxonomy and naming

''Dampiera incana'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in ''Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae Van-Diemen, exhibens characteres plantarum quas annis 1802-1805''. 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 ...

(''incana'') means "grey, hoary".

Distribution and habitat

Hoary dampiera grows in a variety of situations including sand and limestone on sand dunes, flats and plains.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17479962

incana The Socotra warbler (''Incana incana'') is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Incana''. It is endemic to Socotra. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and subtropical or trop ...

Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1810 Endemic flora of Australia