''Dicrastylis rugosifolia'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

within the genus, ''

Dicrastylis ''Dicrastylis'' is a genus of plants in the Lamiaceae, first described in 1855. The entire genus is endemic to Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainla ...

'', in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

. It is endemic to the south-west of

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

''Dicrastylis rugosifolia'' is a dense sprawling shrub, growing to 35 cm high. Its stems are roughly circular in cross section. The opposite and entire leaves are 4–7 mm long by 0.8-1.5 mm wide, and have branched (dendritic) hairs, and a blistered, puckered surface. There are no bracteoles, but there are bracts which are 1.5-4. mm long. The flowers are sessile. The calyx has five lobes (1.7–2 mm long), covered in dendritic hairs, and the white or cream corolla is 3–4 mm long, with no dots or stripes in its throat. There are five stamens. Flowers may be seen from August to December. It is found in the

IBRA The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities. It was devel ...

regions of Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, and the Geraldton Sandplains.

Taxonomy

It was first described by

Ahmad Abid Munir Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

in 1977 as ''Mallophora rugosifolia'', but was redescribed by

Barbara Lynette Rye Barbara Lynette Rye is an Australian botanist born in 1952. Barbara Rye has been associated with the Western Australian Herbarium, where her work as a taxonomist has been the source of many new descriptions of plants. The number of taxa recorded ...

in 2005 as ''Dicrastylis rugosifolia''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15316814 rugosifolia Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Barbara Lynette Rye Plants described in 1977 Eudicots of Western Australia