''Verticordia crebra'', commonly known as Barrens featherflower, crowded featherflower or Twertup featherflower, 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 a sprawling shrub with crowded, cylinder-shaped leaves with small, yellow flowers that are almost hidden by the leaves but with a

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 ...

which extends well beyond 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. The plant looks superficially like a miniature

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

tree.

Description

''Verticordia crebra'' is a sprawling, open-branched shrub with a single main stem and which grows to a height of about and a width of . Its leaves are crowded over the entire plant, linear in shape and round in cross-section, long with a stalk long, giving the plant the appearance of a small pine tree. The flowers are scattered, appearing in a few upper leaf axils on erect or spreading stalks long, and apart from the styles are almost hidden by the foliage. 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 shaped like half a sphere, about long, smooth and densely hairy. The sepals are pale yellow, long with 6 to 8 feathery lobes. The

s are roughly circular in shape, pale yellow, about long with irregularly toothed margins. The

is long, gently curved, hairy and extends well beyond the flower and the foliage. Flowering time is from May to October.

Taxonomy and naming

''Verticordia crebra'' 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 from specimens collected in the

Fitzgerald River National Park Fitzgerald River National Park is a national park in the Shires of Ravensthorpe and the Jerramungup in Western Australia, southeast of Perth. The park is recognised on Australia's National Heritage List for its outstanding diversity of native ...

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 ...

''. 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 ...

(''crebra'') 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 ...

word ''creber'' meaning "close", "pressed together" or "frequent", referring to the crowded leaves. George placed this species in subgenus ''Verticordia'', section ''Verticordia'' along with '' V. helichrysantha'', '' V. plumosa'', '' V. stenopetala'', '' V. sieberi'', '' V. harveyi'', '' V. pityrhops'', and '' V. fimbrilepis''.

Distribution and habitat

This verticordia grows on rocky

spongolite {{unreferenced, date=February 2019 Spongolite is a stone made almost entirely from fossilised sponges. It is light and porous. The silica spicules fossilised with the sponges makes the material hazardous to handle by being highly abrasive. Becau ...

and in pockets of soil on

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 ...

in low, open heath. It is only known from small areas in the Fitzgerald River National Park in the

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 biogeographic regions.

Conservation

''Verticordia crebra'' is classified as " Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" 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 ...

and has been listed as "Vulnerable" (VU) under the Australian Government

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 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 ...

(EPBC Act). The population size was estimated to be 7,000 mature plants in 4 populations in 2011. The main threat to the species is too-frequent fires.

Use in horticulture

While probably not an attractive garden plant, research is being done to determine the best methods of propagation and cultivation so that the species may be conserved in the event of loss of wild populations.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7922894 crebra Endemic flora of Western Australia Myrtales of Australia Rosids of Western Australia Vulnerable flora of Australia Plants described in 1991