''Pimelea ligustrina'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Thymelaeaceae The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants composed of 50 genera (listed below) and 898 species.Zachary S. Rogers (2009 onwards)A World Checklist of Thymelaeaceae (version 1) Missouri Botanical Garden Website, St. Louis. It ...

, 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 shrub with lance-shaped or narrowly elliptic leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and clusters of creamy-white, white or pinkish flowers usually surrounded by 4 or 8, greenish to reddish brown involucral bracts.

Description

''Pimelea ligustrina'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has glabrous stems. Its leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base or narrowly elliptic, mostly long and wide on a short petiole. The flowers are

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

or female, creamy white or white, rarely pink, and arranged in large, erect clusters, surrounded by 4 or 8 lance-shaped to broadly elliptic involucral bracts long and wide. The floral tube is 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 long and hairy on the outside. Flowering time varies with subspecies. The fruit is green and long.

Taxonomy

''Pimelea ligustrina'' was first formally described in 1805 by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in his '' Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen''. In 1983,

S. Threlfall S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...

described three subspecies of ''P. ligustrina'' in the journal ''

Brunonia ''Brunonia australis'', commonly known as the blue pincushion or native cornflower, is a perennial or annual herb that grows widely across Australia. It is found in woodlands, open forest and sand plains. In Cronquist's classification scheme ...

'' and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

: *''Pimelea ligustrina'' subsp. ''ciliata'' Threlfall is a shrub up to high with elliptic leaves mostly long, and heads of 20 to 70 flowers on a glabrous

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

, mainly from February to March. *''Pimelea ligustrina'' subsp. ''hypericina'' (

A.Cunn. Allan Cunningham (13 July 1791 – 27 June 1839) was an English botanist and explorer, primarily known for his travels in Australia to collect plants. Early life Cunningham was born in Wimbledon, Surrey, England, the son of Allan Cunnin ...

) Threlfall is a shrub high with leaves lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base to elliptic, mostly long, and heads of 36 to more than 150 flowers on a peduncle that has short, fine hairs, in September and October. *''Pimelea ligustrina'' Labill. subsp. ''ligustrina'' is a shrub up to high with variably-shaped leaves mostly long, and heads of 15 to 130 flowers on a glabrous

, mainly from October to December.

Distribution and habitat

This pimelea occurs in the A.C.T. and all states of Australia, except Western Australia. Subspecies ''ciliata'' grows in forest, snow gum woodland and heath above south from the Brindabella Range in New South Wales, the A.C.T. and eastern Victoria. Subspecies ''hypericina'' grows on the margins of wet forest and rainforest, mainly between the

Gibraltar Range The Gibraltar Range is a mountain range in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The range extends off the Great Dividing Range at Bald Nob about east northeast of and trends generally east northeast and north northea ...

and Mount Cambewarra in New South Wales. Subspecies ''ligustrina'' is widely distributed in forest below in south-east Queensland, eastern New South Wales, the A.C.T., southern Victoria, the far south-east of South Australia, and in Tasmania.

Ecology

This pimelea is a food plant for caterpillars of the yellow-spot blue butterfly.

Conservation status

Subspecies ''ciliata'' is listed as "endangered" under the Victorian Government ''

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 The ''Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988'', also known as the ''FFG Act'', is an act of the Victorian Government designed to protect species, genetic material and habitats, to prevent extinction and allow maximum genetic diversity within the Au ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q7194611, from2=Q66104776, from3=Q55934928, from4=Q100482300 ligustrina Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (Australia) Malvales of Australia Plants described in 1805 Taxa named by Jacques Labillardière