''Symonanthus bancroftii'', also known as Bancroft's Symonanthus, is a species of flowering plant in the potato family that 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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Etymology

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 ...

''bancroftii'' honours Queensland surgeon

Joseph Bancroft Joseph Bancroft (21 February 1836 – 16 June 1894) was a surgeon, pharmacologist and parasitologist born in England, who emigrated to Queensland, Australia. Early life Bancroft was born in Stretford, near Manchester, Lancashire, the only son of ...

for his

pharmacological Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

research on Australian plants.

Description

The species grows as an erect

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

to 1 m in height, covered with grey hairs. The oval leaves are 8 mm long and 4.5 mm wide. The flowers are dull yellow-green, with the corolla 5–6 mm long. The fruit is a shiny round red berry 5–10 mm in diameter.

Distribution and habitat

Bancroft's Symonanthus is very rare and known only from a few localities in the south-eastern Wheatbelt region of south-west

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Conservation

The species is listed as

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

under Australia's

EPBC Act The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

References

bancroftii Eudicots of Western Australia Solanales of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1883 {{Australia-asterid-stub