''Spyridium waterhousei'' 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, slightly sticky shrub with linear leaves and heads of hairy flowers with three brown

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.

Description

''Spyridium waterhousei'' is an erect, slightly sticky shrub that typically grows to a height of up to . It has linear leaves long, the edges rolled under and the lower surface silky-hairy. The flowers heads are arranged in

cymes An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed on ...

usually with up to 3 sessile flowers each with 2 or 3 egg-shaped or lance-shaped brown

s at the base and felty-hairy floral leaves. The flowers are top-shaped, about long with a prominent, wavy

disk Disk or disc may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a geometric shape * Disk storage Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other uses * Disk (functional analysis), a subset of a vector sp ...

above the

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

Taxonomy

''Spyridium waterhousei'' was first formally described in 1862 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 ...

in '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'', from specimens collected on the "Freestone Range" by Frederick George Waterhouse. 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 ...

(''waterhousei'') honours the collector 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 ...

specimens. The species was later included in other genera, including ''

Cryptandra ''Cryptandra'' is a genus of flowering plants family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to Australia. Most plants in the genus ''Cryptandra'' are spiny, heath-like shrubs with small, clustered leaves and flowers crowded at the ends of branches, the flow ...

'', ''Solanendra'' and ''

Stenanthemum ''Stenanthemum'' is a genus of flowering plants family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus ''Stenanthemum'' are small shrubs usually lacking spines. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches, Leaf#Divisions of ...

'', due to confusion surrounding generic limits in the tribe Pomaderreae of the Rhamnaceae.

Distribution and habitat

''Spyridium waterhousei'' is endemic to Kangaroo Island in South Australia where it is known as ''Cryptandra waterhousii'', and grows in sugar gum ('' Eucalyptus cladocalyx'') woodland, often along creeklines.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q115570956, from2=Q17233875 waterhousei Rosales of Australia Flora of South Australia Plants described in 1862 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller