''Pityrodia augustensis'', commonly known as Mount Augustus foxglove, is a flowering plant in the mint family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

and is endemic to a small area in Western Australia. It is a small, bushy shrub with its branches, leaves and some of its flower parts densely covered with woolly hairs. It is similar to the lovely foxglove (''

Dasymalla axillaris ''Dasymalla axillaris'', commonly known as native foxglove or woolly foxglove, is a flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a small, diffuse shrub with its branches, leaves and some of its flower p ...

'') and the sandplain foxglove (''

Dasymalla terminalis ''Dasymalla terminalis'', commonly known as native foxglove, is a flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with its branches, leaves and some of its flower parts densel ...

'') but has very different leaves from those species.

Description

''Pityrodia augustensis'' is a bushy shrub which grows to a height of about and which has its branches densely covered with greenish-white branched hairs. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs along the branches and are long, wide, narrow elliptic in shape and wedge-shaped at both ends. They are densely covered with a matted layer of woolly hairs. The flowers are arranged singly or in groups of up to five on woolly stalks, usually long the groups up to long. Each flower is surrounded by woolly

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s and bracteoles. The sepals are a deep purple-lilac colour, mostly woolly-hairy and are long forming a short tube near their base. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are a deep lilac colour and form a broad tube long with two "lips" - the upper one with two lobes and the lower one with three lobes. The tube is sparsely hairy on the outside and mostly glabrous on the inside. The four

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 are usually enclosed within the tube, one pair shorter than the others. Flowering occurs from August to October and is followed by a more or less spherical fruit surrounded by the sepals. Pityrodia augustensis (habit)

This species is similar to ''P. axillaris'' but that species has a deep red or scarlet petal tube which is almost glabrous on the outside. It also resembles ''P. terminalis'' which, however has elongated elliptic leaves which are more or less stem-clasping at the base.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pityrodia augustensis'' was first formally described in 1979 by

Ahmad Abid Munir Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

from a specimen collected on the northern slopes of Mount Augustus, and the description was published in ''Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens''. 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 ...

(''augustensis'') refers to the location of the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen.

Distribution and habitat

This pityrodia grows on rocky hillsides in the Mount Augustus National Park and on Mount Fraser in the

Robinson Ranges The Robinson Ranges are a range of hills approximately north of Meekatharra in central Western Australia. The range is a unique physiographic feature located within the upper section of the Padbury group sequence in the Palaeoproterozoic basin. ...

near Meekatharra, in the

Gascoyne The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Ga ...

biogeographic region An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

Conservation

''Pityrodia augustensis'' is classified as "vulnerable" under the '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' and as " Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia) meaning that it is likely to become extinct or is rare, or otherwise in need of special protection. The main threats to its survival are grazing and, in the case of some populations, mining activities.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15351851 augustensis Plants described in 1979 Flora of Western Australia