Spyridium halmaturinum foliage and flowers 02

''Spyridium halmaturinum'', commonly known as Kangaroo Island spyridium, 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 to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It is an erect, sticky shrub with densely softly-hairy young stems, leaves that are heart-shaped with the narrower end towards the base to broadly wedge-shaped or Y-shaped, and dense heads of white to cream-coloured flowers.

Description

''Spyridium halmaturinum'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has sticky foliage, its young stems densely covered with simple and star-shaped hairs. The leaves are heart-shaped with the narrower end towards the base to broadly wedge-shaped or Y-shaped, mostly long and wide on a petiole long. There are reddish brown, egg-shaped stipules long at the base of the leaves. The edges of the leaves are turned down or rolled under, the tip is often forked with two lobes, and both surfaces are covered with soft, star-shaped hairs. The heads of "flowers" are wide, the individual flowers more or less sessile and velvety-hairy. Each head is surrounded by 5 or 6 white floral leaves long, wide and densely covered with a velvety layer of star-shaped hairs. The fruit is a dark brown capsule long.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1855 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 ...

who gave it the name ''Trymalium halmaturinum'' in his ''Definitions of rare or hitherto undescribed Australian plants''. In 1863, George Bentham changed the name to ''Spyridium halmaturinum'' in '' Flora Australiensis''. 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 ...

(''halmaturinum'') is derived from the Latin word ''halmaturus'' meaning "kangaroo", referring to Kangaroo Island, where this species is endemic.

Distribution and habitat

''Spyridium halmaturinum'' grows in coastal heath, shrubland and mallee woodland, mainly on the southern half of Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17240751 halmaturinum Rosales of Australia Flora of South Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1855