''Kunzea caduca'' is a 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 to Queensland. It is a spreading shrub with linear to lance-shaped leaves and groups of white to cream-coloured flowers on the ends of all the branches from late winter to early spring. It is only known from a few locations and only conserved in the

Castle Tower National Park Castle Tower is a national park in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. Geography The park is split across the south-eastern corner of the locality of Iveragh, Queensland, Iveragh and the south-western corner of the locality of Foresho ...

near

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

Description

''Kunzea caduca'' is a spreading shrub which grows to a height of about , although often much lower. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches and are linear to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, mostly long, wide on a petiole less than long. The leaves are more or less glabrous and more than sixty coarse glands are visible on the lower surface. The flowers are white to cream-coloured and are arranged in rounded groups of three to eight flowers on the ends of all the branches, each flower with a pedicel up to long. The

floral cup In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...

is about long and glabrous. The sepals are broadly triangular to egg-shaped, ridged near their tips and glabrous. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are about long and there are 48 to 56

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s in several rows with the outer row up to twice as long as the inner one. Flowering occurs in August and September and is followed by the fruit which is a cup-shaped capsule about long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Kunzea caduca'' was first formally described in 2016 by Hellmut Toelken and the description was published in '' Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens''. 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 ...

(''caduca'') is a Latin word meaning "falling" or "deciduous" referring to the

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 which fall off before the flower fully opens.

Distribution and habitat

This kunzea grows on steep hills on mountains with

intrusive rock Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form ''Igneous intrusion, intrusions'', such as batholiths, dike (geology), dikes, Sill (geology), sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.I ...

s in woodland and shrubland in a few locations near Gladstone.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q65941621 caduca Flora of Queensland Plants described in 2016 Myrtales of Australia Endemic flora of Australia Taxa named by Hellmut R. Toelken