''Pimelea milliganii'', commonly known as silver riceflower or Milligan's rice flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to a restricted part of Tasmania. It is a low, much-branched, densely hairy shrub with more or less elliptic leaves and compact clusters of white to pinkish flowers usually surrounded by two leaf-like involucral bracts.

Description

''Pimelea milliganii'' is a low, much-branched, densely hairy shrub or undershrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has densely hairy young stems. The leaves are silvery and more or less elliptic, long and wide on a short petiole. The flowers are white to pinkish, long, and arranged in compact clusters of 7 to 15 on hairy

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

, usually surrounded by 2 leaf-like involucral bracts. The floral tube is long, the sepals long. Flowering has been observed between December and March.

Taxonomy

''Pimelea milliganii'' was first formally described in 1857 by Carl Meissner in 1845 in de Candolle's '' Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis'' from specimens collected b
Joseph Milligan
near Macquarie Harbour.

Distribution

This pimelea is restricted to the Queenstown area of western Tasmania where it grows in alpine heath on mountain summits at altitudes of between .

Conservation status

''Pimelea milliganii'' is listed as "rare" under the Tasmanian Government '' Threatened Species Protection Act 1995''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17582308 milliganii Malvales of Australia Taxa named by Carl Meissner Plants described in 1857 Flora of Tasmania