''Darwinia sanguinea'' is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

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 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 prostrate, sprawling shrub that typically grows to a height of and has reddish purple flowers between August and December. This species was first formally described in 1857 by Carl Meissner who gave it the name ''Genetyllis sanguinea'' in the '' Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany'' from material collected near the Hill River by James Drummond. In 1865, George Bentham changed the name to ''Darwinia sanguinea'' in a later edition of the same journal. 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 ...

(''sanguinea'') means "blood-coloured", referring to the flowers. This darwinia is often found on hills and sandplains between Coorow, Carnamah and

Dandaragan Dandaragan is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The name of Dandaragan was first recorded in 1850 as the name of a nearby gulley and spring or watering hole known as Dandaraga spring. The word is Indigenous Australian i ...

in the Geraldton Sandplains and

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

bioregions of south-western Western Australia where it grows in sandy soils over

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15396563 sanguinea Endemic flora of Western Australia Myrtales of Australia Rosids of Western Australia Plants described in 1857 Taxa named by Carl Meissner