''Styphelia perileuca'', commonly known as montane green five-corners, is a plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is an erect, spreading shrub with broad leaves with a spiky tip, and yellowish-green and red tube-shaped flowers with the

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s rolled back. It is only known from the eastern edge of the

New England Tableland New England is a vaguely defined region in the north of the state of New South Wales, Australia, about 60 km inland from the Tasman Sea. The area includes the Northern Tablelands (or New England Tablelands) and the North West Slopes regions. A ...

Description

''Styphelia perileuca'' is a spreading shrub which grows up to tall and wide. Its leaves are mostly broadly elliptic in shape, long, wide, slightly dished with very fine teeth along the edge and a sharp point on the tip. The flowers are tube-shaped, yellowish green in colour with fine red stripes and hang singly from upper leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s. There are five glabrous sepals long. The five petals are joined, forming a tube long with the tips of the petals rolled back and hairy on the inside surface. The

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s are straight and extend beyond the end of the petal tube. Flowering occurs mostly between September and January but flowers are also present in April. Styphelia perileuca (habit)

Taxonomy and naming

''Styphelia perileuca'' was first formally described in 1992 by Jocelyn Powell and published in '' Telopea''. 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 ...

(''perileuca'') is derived from the Ancient Greek words ''peri'' meaning "around" and ''leukos'' meaning "white" referring to the thin white perimeter of the leaves.

Distribution and habitat

Montane green five-corners is only known from

Cathedral Rock National Park Cathedral Rock is a national park west of Waterfall Way in New South Wales, Australia, east of Armidale and about north of Sydney. This park is lying between the Guy Fawkes River and Macleay Range, and is about six kilometres west of Ebor, ...

, the New England National Park and near

Maclean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John). The clan surname is an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic "Mac Gille Eathain" ...

. It grows in shrubland near swamps and in forest.

Conservation

''Styphelia perileuca'' is classified as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' and the New South Wales Government '' Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016''. The main threats to the species are its small population size and narrow distribution.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17242567 perileuca Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1992