''Verticordia bifimbriata'' is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the myrtle

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

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-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

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 ...

. It is an open shrub with small leaves and spikes of pink flowers.

Description

''Verticordia bifimbriata'' is an open branched shrub with a single stem at its base and which grows to a height of and a width of . The leaves are thick, narrow elliptic in shape, concave, long and irregularly toothed along their margins. The flowers are scented and arranged in spikes near the ends of the branches, each flower on a stalk long. The

floral cup In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the 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 calyx tube. It ...

is top-shaped, long, has 5 rounded ribs and a mostly smooth surface. 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 pink, long, with 6 to 9 lobes with thread-like fringes and prominent fringed appendages. 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 are pink, with a fringe of branching threads. The

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

is curved, about long, and has a beard of hairs long. Flowering time is from late November to May.

Taxonomy and naming

''Verticordia bifimbriata'' was first formally described by

Alex George Alexander or Alex George may refer to: *Alex George (botanist) (born 1939), Australian botanist * Alexander L. George (1920–2006), American political scientist * Alexander George (philosopher), American philosopher *Alex George (motorcyclist), Sc ...

in 1991 and the description was published in ''

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 near

Wannamal Wannamal is a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The town's name is taken from the nearby Wannamal Lake, a name of Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage ...

. 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 ...

(''bifimbriata'') is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

prefix ''bi-'' meaning "twice-over" and the word ''fimbriatus'' meaning "fringed with hairs" referring to the thread-like fringing hairs on the petals themselves having a fringe. George placed this species in subgenus ''Eperephes'', section ''Verticordella'' along with '' V. pennigera'', '' V. halophila'', '' V. blepharophylla'', '' V. lindleyi'', '' V. carinata'', '' V. drummondii'', '' V. wonganensis'','' V. paludosa'', '' V. luteola'', '' V. attenuata'', '' V. tumida'', '' V. mitodes'', '' V. centipeda'', '' V. auriculata'', '' V. pholidophylla'', '' V. spicata'' and '' V. hughanii''.

Distribution and habitat

''V. bifimbriata'' grows in sand, often over a substrate of

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

, sometimes in areas near

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

that are wet in winter, in heath, shrubland or ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

'' woodland. It is found in areas between Mogumber,

New Norcia New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, Bindoon and the

Dryandra Woodland The Dryandra Woodland National Park is a national park in Western Australia within the shires of Cuballing, Williams and Wandering, about south-east of Perth and north-west of the town of Narrogin. It is a complex of 17 distinct blocks ma ...

, in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...

Jarrah Forest Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...

and

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

Conservation

''Verticordia bifimbriata'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

Use in horticulture

In cultivation ''V. bifimbriata'' is a slender to bushy shrub with delicately perfumed flowers, making it an attractive garden plant. It is usually propagated from seed and the plants have flowered within 18 months of germinating. Sometimes slow to establish at first, they often then grow vigorously. It will grow in well-drained soil in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

with its wet summers and is tolerant of light frosts.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7922884 bifimbriata Rosids of Western Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1991