''Muniria quadrangulata'' 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 covered with a thick layer of woolly hairs and pale yellow flowers in groups of up to nine, surrounded by woolly hairs.

Description

''Muniria quadrangulata'' is shrub which grows to a height of about and has branches that have four corners in cross-section. The branches, leaves and some of the flower parts are covered with a thick, woolly layer of white hairs. The leaves are oblong to egg-shaped, long, wide and have a wrinkled, blistered surface. The flowers are arranged in groups of up to nine, sometimes twelve, 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, the groups on a hairy stalk long, each flower on a hairy stalk long. The flowers are surrounded by leafy, lance-shaped, woolly

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 o ...

. 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, mostly woolly and joined for about half their length into a tube with the sepal lobes long. 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 pale yellow, long and joined for most of their length to form a tube which is hairy on the outside 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 ...

on the 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. ...

. There are five egg-shaped lobes on the end of the tube, the lower, central lobe long and wide at the base and much 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 to near the end of the tube, the lower pair longer than the upper ones. Flowering occurs from January to August and is followed from January to September by the fruit which is oval-shaped but with four distinct ridges and has the sepals attached.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1979 by Ahmad Abid Munir from a specimen collected south of

Gunbalanya Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is an Aboriginal Australian town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunwi ...

(formerly called Oenpelli). It was given the name ''Pityrodia quadrangulata'' 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. H ...

, 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.

Distribution

This species only occurs in Arnhem Land where it is found in Kakadu and Nitmiluk National Parks.

Conservation

''Muniria quadrangulata'' is classified as "least concern" under the '' Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act''.

References

External links

''Muniria quadrangulata'' 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=Q28184805 quadrangulata Plants described in 1979 Flora of the Northern Territory