''Philotheca verrucosa'', commonly known as fairy wax-flower or Bendigo wax-flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Derm ...

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 Australia. It is a small shrub with prominently

glandular In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

-warty branchlets, heart-shaped or egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and white flowers usually arranged singly in leaf axils.

Description

''Philotheca verrucosa'' is a shrub or undershrub that typically grows to a height of about , rarely to , and has prominently glandular warty branchlets. The 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 ...

, heart-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide and glandular warty on the lower surface. The leaves are flat or folded lengthwise. The flowers are mostly arranged singly in leaf axils on a peduncle long, the

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long. 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 more or less round, fleshy and about long. The five petals are white, elliptic and about long and the ten

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 are hairy. Flowering occurs from August to October.

Taxonomy

Fairy wax-flower was first formally described in 1834 by

Achille Richard Achille Richard was a French botanist, botanical illustrator and physician (27 April 1794 in Paris – 5 October 1852). Biography Achille was the son of the botanist Louis-Claude Marie Richard (1754–1821). He was a pharmacist in the Frenc ...

who gave it the name ''Erisotemon verrucosus'' in ''Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe - Botanique''. In 1998, Paul Wilson changed the name to ''Philotheca verrucosa'' in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

''Philotheca verrucosa'' grows on rocky hills in forest and woodland, sometimes in sandy heathland and occurs in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. It is found in the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...

in South Australia, in the

Grampians The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. T ...

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

district and

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

in Victoria and in eastern Tasmania.

Use in horticulture

This philotheca can be grown from tip cuttings and is frost hardy and reasonably drought-tolerant. Some forms have double or multiple whorls of petals. ''Philotheca'' 'Flower Girl' is a hybrid

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

, thought to be a cross between this species and ''

Philotheca myoporoides ''Philotheca myoporoides'', commonly known as long-leaf wax flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with sessile, oblong to egg-shaped, glandular-warty leaves a ...

''. It produces a profusion of light pink to white flowers during winter and spring and grows to between 1 and 2 metres high.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7186293

verrucosa ''Verrucosa'' is a genus of Araneidae, orb-weaver spiders first described by Henry Christopher McCook, Henry McCook in 1888. It contains almost fifty described species, most of which live in South America. The only species in the United States is ...

Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1834 Sapindales of Australia Taxa named by Achille Richard