''Aggreflorum benwellii'' is a species of shrub that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Nymboida National Park Nymboida is a national park in New South Wales, Australia, 485 km north of Sydney. Some of the possibilities are bird watching, camping, hiking, canoeing and swimming in the clear cold water of the Nimboida and Mann rivers. The average e ...

in New South Wales. It has smooth bark, young branches with conspicuous flanges, narrow elliptical leaves, white flowers and thin-walled, bell-shaped to hemispherical fruit.

Description

''Aggreflorum benwellii'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has smooth bark that is shed annually. Young branchlets are glabrous with conspicuous flanges. The leaves are arranged alternately, more or less

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, paler on the lower surface, narrow elliptical, long and wide. The lower side of young leaves are hairy near their edge. The flowers are borne singly or in groups of up to three in leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

about long. The

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are long and glabrous apart from soft hairs on the edges. 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, egg-shaped to round, long and the

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 are long. Flowering has been observed in November and the fruit is a thin-walled, glabrous, bell-shaped to hemispherical capsule about long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 2004 by

Anthony Bean Anthony Russell Bean (born 1957) is an Australian botanist who works at the Queensland Herbarium and Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha. Since 1982, he has led the Eucalyptus Study Group of the Society for Growing Australian Plants. Care ...

who gave it the name ''Leptospermum benwellii'' in the journal '' Telopea'' from specimens he collected near Munningyundo in the Nymboida National Park. In 2023, Peter Gordon Wilson transferred the species to the genus ''Aggreflorum'' as ''A. benwellii'' in the journal ''

Taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

''. 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 ...

(''benwellii'') honours the botanist Andrew Samuel Benwell.

Distribution and habitat

This species is only known from 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 ...

location where it grows in shrubland on steep, rocky slopes.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15369309 Myrtales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 2004 Taxa named by Anthony Bean benwellii