''Leucopogon glacialis'', the twisted 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 ...

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 south-eastern continental Australia. It is a spreading to erect shrub with narrowly egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves, and crowded spikes of white flowers.

Description

''Leucopogon glacialis'' is a slender, spreading to erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and has brownish, softly-hairy branchlets. Its leaves are more or less erect, narrowly egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long, wide, and usually spirally twisted. The flowers are arranged in crowded spikes of six to twelve, long on the ends of branches and in upper leaf axils with egg-shaped

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 ...

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 oblong to egg-shaped, long, the petals white and long, forming a tube with lobes slightly longer than the petal tube. Flowering occurs from April to September and the fruit is an oval

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'') ...

about long.

Taxonomy

''Leucopogon glacialis'' was first formally described in 1838 by

John Lindley John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. Early years Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...

in Thomas Mitchell's journal, ''Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia''. 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 ...

(''glacialis'') means "frozen".

Distribution and habitat

This leucopogon grows in heath and heathy woodland and is found mostly in the south-west of Victoria and the far south-east of South Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17243724 glacialis Ericales of Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1838 Taxa named by John Lindley