''Sprengelia monticola'', commonly known as rock sprengelia, is a species of flowering plant of the family Ericaceae, and is endemic to the Blue Mountains in eastern New South Wales. It is an open or low-lying shrub with egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves, and white flowers arranged singly in leaf axils.

Description

''Sprengelia monticola'' is an open or low-lying, glabrous shrub that typically grows to a height of . The leaves are egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide with a small point on the end. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils, with tapering, egg-shaped

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 at the base. The sepals are triangular to egg-shaped, about long and the petals white, sometimes joined at the base to form a tube long with lobes long. Flowering occurs from September to December and the fruit is a capsule about in diameter.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1839 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in '' Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis'' and was given the name ''Ponceletia monticola'' from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham. In 1917, George Claridge Druce changed the name to ''Sprengelia monticola'' in the supplement to ''The Botanical Exchange Club and Society of the British Isles Report for 1916''. 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 ...

(''monticola'') means "dweller in mountains".

Habitat and distribution

Rock sprengelia grows on wet sandstone rocks and cliff ledges in the Blue Mountains of eastern New South Wales, often with cliff ledge vegetation such as king fern (''

Todea barbara ''Todea barbara'' is known as the king fern. Occurring in moist areas of south eastern Australia, and also indigenous to New Zealand and South Africa. Taxonomy Carl Linnaeus described the king fern in volume II of his '' Species Plantarum'' as ...

'') and ''

Dracophyllum secundum ''Dracophyllum secundum'' is a prostrate to semi-erect shrub found in eastern Australia. It occurs from as far south as Pigeon House Mountain north to Kendall, New South Wales on the mid north coast. A common plant in the Blue Mountains near Syd ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17244479 Epacridoideae monticola Ericales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1839 Taxa named by Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle