''Spyridium glaucum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

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 a restricted area of south-western Western Australia. It is an erect or spreading shrub with egg-shaped leaves, and clusters of 3 to 6 rusty-hairy flowers.

Description

''Spyridium glaucum'' is an erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of , its young stems densely hairy, the hairs pressed against the surface. Its leaves are usually egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, sometimes oblong to elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long, and with the edges turned down or rolled under. The flowers are borne in heads of 3 to 6, the heads wide and densely covered with rust-coloured hairs. 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 ...

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 September to November.

Taxonomy

''Spyridium glaucum'' was first formally described in 1995 by

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 recorded ...

in the ''

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 ...

'' from specimens collected by

Eleanor Marion Bennett Eleanor Marion Bennett (born 4 February 1942) (née Scrymgeour) is an Australian botanist who was employed by the Western Australian Herbarium from 1965 to 1970. She collected ''Eucalyptus'' species in the south-west of Western Australia and pub ...

near

Ravensthorpe Ravensthorpe may refer to any of the following places. England *Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury in West Yorkshire **Ravensthorpe railway station, Dewsbury *Ravensthorpe, Northamptonshire *Ravensthorpe, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire *Ravensthorpe, an histor ...

in 1979. 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 ...

(''glaucum'') means "bluish-green or grey", referring to the colour of the leaves.

Distribution

This spyridium is only known from hills north-east of Ravensthorpe in the

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

bioregion of south-western Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17243276 glaucum Rosales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1995 Taxa named by Barbara Lynette Rye