''Epacris rigida'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-eastern New South Wales. It is an erect to spreading shrub with egg-shaped to more or less circular leaves and sweetly-scented, cream-coloured, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

''Epacris robusta'' is an erect to spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of , its branchlets softly-hairy. Its leaves are egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, to more or less rhombic or circular, long and wide on a petiole long and curve downwards. The flowers are borne in groups near the ends of branches and are wide, each flower on a

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long with

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 and bracteoles at the base. The flowers are sweetly-scented, the sepals long and the petals cream-coloured, joined at the base to form a tube long with lobes long. Flowering mostly occurs from August to December, and the fruit is a capsule about long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Epacris robusta'' was first formally described in 1868 by George Bentham in '' Flora Australiensis'' from specimens collected 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 ...

near the headwaters of the Genoa River. 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 ...

(''robusta'') means "hard" or "firm".

Distribution and habitat

This epacris grows in heath or rocky slopes at altitudes above in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, but mainly south of the Tinderry Range.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15377096

robusta ROBUSTA (Radiation on Bipolar for University Satellite Test Application) is a nano-satellite scientific experiment developed by the University of Montpellier students as part of a Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) call for student projects ...

Ericales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Taxa named by George Bentham Plants described in 1868