''Pimelea plurinervia'' 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 to north-eastern Queensland. It is a shrub with densely hairy young stems, elliptic leaves and heads of 24 to 45 white, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

''Pimelea plurinervia'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy young stems. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches, elliptic, lance-shaped of egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide, on a petiole long. The upper surface of the leaves is sometimes hairy, the lower surface with hairs pressed against the surface. The flowers are borne on the ends of branches in heads of 8 to 18 on a densely hairy

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the grc, ῥάχις [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this c ...

long, each flower on a

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 flowers are sometimes female, the

floral tube In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the Sepal, calyx, the petal, corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and cal ...

long and white, 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 spread widely apart. Flowering occurs from August to February, and the seeds are oval, black and long.

Taxonomy

''Pimelea plurinervia '' was first formally described in 2017 by

Anthony Bean Anthony Russell Bean (born 1957) is an Australian botanist who works at the Queensland Herbarium and Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha. Since 1982, he has led the Eucalyptus Study Group of the Society for Growing Australian Plants. Care ...

in the journal ''

Austrobaileya ''Austrobaileya'' is the sole genus consisting of a single species that constitutes the entire flowering plant family Austrobaileyaceae. The species ''Austrobaileya scandens'' grows naturally only in the Wet Tropics rainforests of northeast ...

'' from specimens he collected in

Hinchinbrook Island National Park Hinchinbrook Island National Park is Australia's largest island national park. It is situated along the Cassowary Coast Queensland, Australia. The nearest capital city is Brisbane approximately 1,240 kms to the south. Lucinda is 135 k ...

in 1991. 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 ...

(''plurinervia'') means "many veins", referring to the veins on the leaves.

Distribution and habitat

This pimelea grows in wet forest and on the edges of rainforest on

Hinchinbrook Island Hinchinbrook Island (or Pouandai to the Biyaygiri people) is an island in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It lies east of Cardwell and north of Lucinda, separated from the north-eastern coast of Queensland by the narrow Hi ...

and nearby mainland areas, and near

Tully Falls The Tully Falls, a horsetail chute waterfall on the Tully River, is located in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Wet Tropics in the Far North region of Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , ...

south of Ravenshoe.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q65945556 plurinervia Flora of Queensland Malvales of Australia Plants described in 2017 Taxa named by Anthony Bean