''Leptospermopsis nitens'' is a species of slender 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 Western Australia. It has thin, fibrous bark, narrow egg-shaped to wedge-shaped leaves, white or pink flowers on short side branches and fruit with 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 attached but that falls from the plant shortly after the seeds reach maturity.

Description

''Leptospermopsis nitens'' is a slender shrub that typically grows to a height of about with thin, fibrous bark on the older branches and younger stems with soft, silky hairs at first. The leaves are narrow egg-shaped to narrow wedge-shaped, long and wide on a short petiole. The flowers are white or pink, about wide and are borne singly or in pairs on short side shoots. 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 is covered with flattened silky hairs, on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

about long. The

s are triangular, about long and covered with flattened hairs like those on the floral cup. 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 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 about long. Flowering occurs from July to October, or in December or January and the fruit is a capsule long with the remains of the sepals attached, but that falls from the plant when the seeds mature.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1852 by Nikolai Turczaninow who gave it the name ''Leptospermum nitens'' in the ''Bulletin de la Classe Physico-Mathématique de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg'' from material collected by James Drummond. In 2023,

Peter Gordon Wilson Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

transferred the species to the genus ''Leptospermopsis'' as ''L. nitens'' 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 ...

(''nitens'') is a Latin word meaning "bright" or "gleaming".

Distribution and habitat

This tea-tree is often found on hills and among granite or sandstone rocks in parts of the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie,

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

, Mallee and Murchison

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15368304 nitens Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1852 Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow