''Leucopogon cymbiformis'' is a flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to the south-west of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is a bushy or wiry shrub that typically grows to a height of and has more or less glabrous branches. Its leaves are erect, linear to lance-shaped and sharply-pointed, mostly long. The flowers are arranged in short spikes, sometimes of only two or three flowers, with lance-shaped, leaf-like

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, and bracteoles half as long as the sepals at the base of the spikes. 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 the petals slightly longer than the sepals, the lobes shorter than the petal tube. ''Leucopogon cymbiformis'' was first formally described in 1839 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his ''

Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis ''Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis'' (1824–1873), also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Prodr. (DC.)'', is a 17-volume treatise on botany initiated by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. De Candolle intended it as a summa ...

'' from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham. 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 ...

(''cymbiformis'') means "boat-shaped", referring to the leaves. This leucopogon grows in the Avon Wheatbelt,

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 ...

and

Jarrah Forest Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...

bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

References

cymbiformis Ericales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1839 Taxa named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle {{Australia-asterid-stub