''Kunzea cambagei'', commonly known as the Cambage kunzea is a 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 to a small area of New South Wales. It is a small shrub with egg-shaped leaves and clusters of cream-coloured to yellowish flowers near the end of the branches. It is only known from areas near Mount Werong in the Kanangra-Boyd National Park and Berrima.

Description

''Kunzea cambagei'' is a shrub which grows to a height of about with its branches silky-hairy when young. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches, elliptic to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide with a petiole about long. The flowers are cream-coloured to yellowish and arranged in rounded groups of five to thirteen near the ends of the branches. 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 silky-hairy and about long. The sepal lobes are triangular, about long and 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 white, long. There are about 20-25

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 which are long. Flowering occurs in October and November and the fruit are cup-shaped capsules which are long and about wide.

Taxonomy and naming

''Kunzea cambagei'' was first formally described in 1913 by Joseph Maiden and

Ernst Betche Daniel Ludwig Ernst Betche (31 December 1851, in Potsdam – 28 June 1913, in Sydney) was a German-Australian horticulturist and botanist. His mother died at his birth and he was of delicate constitution all his life. His father was sufficiently ...

from a specimen collected by Richard Hind Cambage. The description was published in ''

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes ''the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches'' and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales ( Australia) in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. History The Society suc ...

''. 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 ...

(''cambagei'') honours the collector of the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen.

Distribution and habitat

The Cambage kunzea grows in moist heath mainly on the Central Tablelands of New South Wales.

Conservation

''Kunzea cambagei'' is listed as "Vulnerable" under the Commonwealth Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (EPBC) Act and as "Vulnerable" under the New South Wales ''

Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 The ''Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act)'' was enacted by the Parliament of New South Wales in 1995 to protect threatened species, populations and ecological communities in NSW. In 2016 it was replaced by the '' Biodiversity Co ...

''. The main threats to the species are inappropriate fire regimes and habitat degradation caused by road widening, rubbish dumping and trail bikes.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15367791 cambagei Flora of New South Wales Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1913 Endemic flora of Australia