''Pimelea pagophila'', commonly known as Grampians rice-flower, is a species of shrub in the family Thymelaeaceae. It has a restricted distribution, white flowers in spherical heads at the end of branches, green leaves arranged in opposite pairs and is endemic to Victoria, Australia.

Description

''Pimelea pagophila'' is a small shrub high with smooth stems and prominent leaf nodes. The mid green leaves are arranged in opposite pairs along the branches and are narrowly egg-shaped to elliptic, long, wide, smooth and mostly paler on the underside. The inflorescence is a pendulous spherical head containing numerous individual flowers. The 4, 6 or 8 overlapping flower bracts are sessile, elliptic or egg-shaped, long, wide, thin, smooth, light green or yellow-green, occasionally a reddish colour. The white flowers are bisexual, the floral tube long and smooth on the outside, hairy inside, the style longer than the floral tube. The sepals are spreading, about long, and smooth on the inside. Flowering occurs from October to November.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pimelea pagophila'' was first formally described in 1990 by Barbara Lynette Rye and the description was published in the '' Flora of Australia''. 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 ...

(''pagophila'') is from ''pago'' meaning "hill or mountain" and ''philea'' meaning "to love" with reference to the habitat of the species.

Distribution

Grampians rice-flower has a restricted distribution and it is endemic to Mount William located within the Grampians National Park, Victoria.

Conservation status

''Pimelea pagophila'' is considered "vulnerable" under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17582299

pagophila The ivory gull (''Pagophila eburnea'') is a small gull, the only species in the genus ''Pagophila''. It breeds in the high Arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. Taxonomy The ivory ...

Malvales of Australia Victoria Taxa named by Barbara Lynette Rye Plants described in 1990