''Leucopogon interruptus'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a spreading, glabrous shrub with oval to oblong leaves crowded at the ends of branches, and many small, white, tube-shaped flowers that are bearded inside.

Description

''Leucopogon interruptus'' is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has erect branches. Its leaves are

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base and less than long. The leaves are mostly crowded at the ends of each year's growth, and are oval to oblong, mostly long with a fine, sharp point on the rounded tip. The flowers are arranged in interrupted spikes on the ends of branches with broad

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 less than half as long as 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. The sepals are less than long and the petals white, forming a tube shorter than the sepals, with bearded lobes about as long as the petal tube.

Taxonomy

''Leucopogon interruptus'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his '' Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen''. 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 ...

(''interruptus'') means "separated", referring to gaps in the flower spikes.

Distribution

This leucopogon grows in grey sand over granite in the

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 ...

bioregion of south-western Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17242092 interruptus Ericales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)