''Pimelea sanguinea'' 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 northern Australia. It is a semi-prostrate

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

with narrowly egg-shaped to almost linear leaves, and heads of red flowers surrounded by green or reddish, and deep reddish-purple involucral bracts.

Description

''Pimelea sanguinea'' is a semi-prostrate herb that typically grows to a height of up to . Its leaves are narrowly egg-shaped to almost linear, long and wide. The flowers are red and arranged in clusters surrounded by egg-shaped involucral bracts long and wide. The bracts are green or reddish on the outside, green or deep reddish-purple inside. The floral tube is long and 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. Flowering occurs from February to August.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pimelea sanguinea'' was first formally described in 1859 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in his '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'' from specimens collected near the mouth of the Roper River. 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 ...

(''sanguinea'') means "blood red".

Distribution and habitat

This pimelea grows in sand and clay, often or woodland, sometimes near wetlands and is found from the Mitchell Plateau, through the Central Kimberley,

Northern Kimberley The Northern Kimberley, an interim Australian bioregion, is located in the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia,Victoria Bonaparte bioregions of northern Western Australia and the north of the Northern Territory, to near

Dimbulah Dimbulah is a town and locality in Far North Queensland, Australia, from Cairns by road, on the Atherton Tableland. It is within the local government area of Shire of Mareeba (between 2008 and 2013, it was within the Tablelands Region). In ...

in northern Queensland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q51047148 sanguinea Malvales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1859