''Leucopogon attenuatus'', commonly known as grey beard-heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

. It has grey-green leaves and small white flowers and grows in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

Description

''Leucopogon attenuatus'' is a dense shrub usually high and the branchlets have soft, short hairs. The grey-green leaves sit erect or upwardly against the stem, linear or oval shaped, long and wide, upper surface convex in cross section, 3 parallel veins on the underside, margins curved downward with small teeth, and stiff, upright hairs, and the leaf tapering to a small point. The white flowers sit upright in groups of 1-3 in upper leaf axils,

bracteole 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 and hairy,

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 long and the floral tube long with soft hairs inside and lobes long. Flowering occurs from in winter to early spring and the fruit is a small, fleshy brown-green and berry-like, oval-shaped to long, ribbed and smooth.

Taxonomy and naming

''Leucopogon attenuatus'' was first formally described in 1825 and the description was published in ''Geographical Memoirs on New South Wales''. 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 ...

(''attenuatus'') means "narrowing to a point".

Distribution and habitat

Grey beard-heath grows in dry, rocky slopes in woodlands and heath on sandy soils in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. In Victoria the species is known as ''Styphelia attenuatus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17244695 attenuatus Ericales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1814