''Spyridium minutum'' 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 the south of Western Australia. It is an erect or spreading shrub with broadly egg-shaped or heart-shaped leaves, and groups of two or three hairy, white flowers.

Description

''Spyridium minutum'' is an erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of , its branchlets hairy at first, the hairs pressed against the surface. Its leaves are broadly egg-shaped to heart-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The edges of the leaves are turned down and the lower surface is densely covered with white hairs. The flowers are white and borne in groups of 2 or 3, wide, 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 ...

about long and densely hairy. 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 are long and densely hairy. Flowering occurs from March to May.

Taxonomy

''Spyridium minutum'' 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 in 1992. 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 ...

(''minutum'') means "minute", referring to the size of the plant and all its parts.

Distribution

This spyridium grows on plains in the Coolgardie,

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 ...

and Mallee bioregions of southern Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17242695 minutum Rosales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1995 Taxa named by Barbara Lynette Rye