''Kunzea parvifolia'', commonly known as the violet 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 eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is a wiry shrub with small, narrow leaves and clusters of pink to purple flowers in spring.

Description

''Kunzea parvifolia'' is a wiry shrub which usually grows to a height of with its young branches covered with soft hairs. The leaves are linear to narrow lance-shaped and more or less pressed against the stem. They are long, about wide with a petiole less than long and are covered with soft hairs when young. The flowers are arranged in clusters of mostly three to eight on 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 long and more or less glabrous. There are egg-shaped

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 long, about wide and paired bracteoles at the base of the flowers. The sepal lobes are triangular to egg-shaped, about long and pointed. 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 pink to mauve, rarely white, egg-shaped to almost round, about long and there 30 to 40

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. The style is long. Flowering mostly occurs in October and November and the fruit are urn-shaped capsules which are about long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

''Kunzea parvifolia'' was first formally described in 1844 by Johannes Conrad Schauer and the description was published in

Johann Lehmann Johann Georg Christian Lehmann (25 February 1792 – 12 February 1860) was a German botanist. Born at Haselau, near Uetersen, Holstein, Lehmann studied medicine in Copenhagen and Göttingen, obtained a doctorate in medicine in 1813 and a doct ...

's ''

Plantae Preissianae ''Plantae preissianae sive enumeratio plantarum quas in australasia occidentali et meridionali-occidentali annis 1838-1841 collegit Ludovicus Preiss'', more commonly known as ''Plantae preissianae'', is a book written by Johann Georg Christian Leh ...

''. 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 ...

(''parvifolia'') is derived from the Latin words ''parvus'' meaning "small" and ''folium'' meaning "leaf".

Distribution and habitat

This kunzea grows in forest in heath and forest in eastern New South Wales south from Torrington and in Victoria, mainly in the north-east but with isolated locations further west.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6445183 parvifolia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Flora of Victoria (state) Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1844