''Pimelea spiculigera'' 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 Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with linear to narrowly egg-shaped leaves and heads of yellow or greenish-yellow flowers surrounded by 2 or 4 egg-shaped involucral bracts.

Description

''Pimelea spiculigera'' is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and has

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

stems. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, linear to narrowly egg-shaped, sometimes with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole long. Both surfaces of the leaves are glabrous, and the same shade of medium green. The flowers are glabrous, yellow or greenish-yellow and arranged in one or two heads, surrounded by 2 or 4 egg-shaped medium green, involucral bracts long and wide. Each flower is on a densely hairy

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 flower tube of male flowers 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, the

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s shorter than the sepals. The flower tube of female flowers is long, the sepals long. Flowering occurs from July to October.

Taxonomy

''Pimelea spiculigera'' was first formally described in 1878 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''. 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 ...

(''spiculigera'') means "carrying a small flower spike". In 1988,

Barbara Lynette Rye Barbara Lynette Rye is an Australian botanist born in 1952. Barbara Rye has been associated with the Western Australian Herbarium, where her work as a taxonomist has been the source of many new descriptions of plants. The number of taxa recorde ...

described two varieties of ''P. spiculigera'' in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

'', 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 spiculigera'' F.Muell. var. ''spiculigera'' has an elongated flower cluster at maturity, the floral

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 ...

up to long. * ''Pimelea spiculigera'' var. ''thesioides'' (

S.Moore Spencer Le Marchant Moore (1 November 1850 – 14 March 1931) was an English botanist. Biography Moore was born in Hampstead. He worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from about 1870 to 1879, wrote a number of botanical papers, and then work ...

) Rye (previously known as ''Pimelea thesioides'' S.Moore) has a compact flower cluster at maturity, the floral

long.

Distribution and habitat

This pimelea grows on granite outcrops and laterite from near Mullewa to Cundeelee and Mount Beaumont (north of Cape Arid National Park), in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...

, Coolgardie, Mallee, Murchison and Yalgoo bioregions of Western Australia. Variety ''spiculigera'' has a more limited distribution than var. ''thesioides'', occurring from the Fraser Range (north-east of

Dundas Dundas may refer to: Places Australia * Dundas, New South Wales * Dundas, Queensland, a locality in the Somerset Region * Dundas, Tasmania * Dundas, Western Australia * Fort Dundas, a settlement in the Northern Territory 1824–1828 * Shire of ...

) to Mount Beaumont in the Coolgardie and Mallee bioregions.

Conservation status

''Pimelea spiculigera'' and both of its varieties are listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q17582279, from2=Q51046605, from3=Q51046616 spiculigera Rosids of Western Australia Malvales of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1878