''Leucopogon australis'', commonly known as spiked beard-heath, is a species of flowering plant in the heath 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 ...

and 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 southern Australia. It is an erect, aromatic shrub with narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly elliptic leaves, and white flowers arranged in spikes near the ends of branchlets.

Description

''Leucopogon australis'' is an erect, aromatic shrub that typically grows to a height of and has

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

branchlets. The leaves are more or less glabrous, narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged in groups of 8 to 28 and long on the ends of branchlets, or in upper leaf axils, with 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 and similar

bracteoles 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 ...

. 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 egg-shaped, long and yellowish. The petals are joined at the base to form a bell-shaped tube about as long as the sepals, the lobes white and long and densely bearded on the inside. Flowering occurs from September to November and the fruit is a flattened spherical

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Leucopogon australis'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his ''

Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae ''Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen'' (Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land) is a flora of Australia written by botanist Robert Brown and published in 1810. Often referred to as ''Prodromus Flora Novae ...

''. 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 ...

(''australis'') means "southern".

Distribution and habitat

This leucopogon grows in the understorey of forest in wetter places within of the coast of Western Australia between Gingin, Augusta and Albany,

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and

Yarram The township of Yarram (formerly Yarram Yarram) is in Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Wellington, located in the southeast of Gippsland. At the , the population of the town was . The town is the regional centre of a prosperous farming distri ...

in Victoria, and northern Tasmania, where it is rare.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17244797 australis Ericales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)