''Muniria megalophylla'' is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the mint

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

and is endemic to

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. It is a shrub with its branches and leaves densely covered with a layer of short, greyish, branched hairs and small groups of reddish-pink flowers near the ends of the branches.

Description

''Muniria megalophylla'' is shrub which grows to a height of and has branches that have four corners in cross-section. The branches, leaves and some of the flower parts are densely covered with woolly, greyish, branched hairs. The leaves have a thin stalk long and an egg-shaped blade long and wide which is heart-shaped at its base. The upper surface of the leaves is wrinkled and the lower surface has a distinct network of veins. The flowers are arranged singly or more usually in groups of up to three to seven in leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s near the ends of the branches, each flower on a woolly stalk long. The flowers are surrounded by 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 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 five

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, joined to form a tube for about half their length, hairy on the outside and on the inside of the lobes but

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 ...

inside the tube. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are redddish-pink, long and joined to form a tube long. The tube is densely woolly on the outside but mostly glabrous inside except for a narrow ring of hairs around the

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

and a few hairs on the largest petal lobe. There are five lobes on the end of the tube, the lower, central lobe is roughly circular, long and wide at the base and larger than the other lobes which are a similar size and shape to each other. The four

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s reach past the end of the tube, the lower pair longer than the upper ones. Flowering occurs in June and is followed by fruit which is oblong but with four distinct ridges and hairy at one end and long.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1979 by Ahmad Abid Munir from a specimen collected near Yaimanyi Creek in Arnhem Land. It was given the name ''Pityrodia megalophylla'' and the description was published in ''Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens''. In 2011,

Barry Conn Barry John Conn (Barry Conn, born 1948), is an Australian botanist. He was awarded a Ph.D. from Adelaide University in 1982 for work on ''Prostanthera''. Career Conn's first appointment as a botanist was with the Lae Herbarium in 1974. He ...

, Murray Henwood and Nicola Streiber described a new genus, ''

Muniria ''Muniria'' is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae and is endemic to the Northern Territory in Australia. Plants in this genus are woolly shrubs with five petals joined to form a tube-shaped flower with ...

'' and transferred this species to it. 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 ...

(''megalophylla'') is derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

words ''megalo'' meaning "large" or "great" and ''phyllon'' meaning "leaf".

Distribution

This only known location is the type location near Yaimanyi Creek in Arnhem Land.

Conservation

''Muniria megalophylla'' is classified as "data deficient" under the '' Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act''.

References

External links

''Muniria megalophylla'' occurrence data
from

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgamat ...

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q28184891 megalophylla Plants described in 1979 Flora of the Northern Territory