''Verticordia penicillaris'' is a flowering plant in the myrtle family,

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 to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small, widely spreading shrub, usually with several main branches. It is readily distinguished from other verticordias by its yellow flowers with white fringes and purple hairs on the end of their long styles.

Description

''Verticordia penicillaris'' is a spreading shrub which grows to a height of and up to wide, sometimes with its lowest branches taking root in the soil. Its leaves are narrow egg-shaped, dished on the upper surface, long and have a blunt end. The flowers are arranged in corymb-like groups on the ends of the branches, each flower on a stalk long with an animal odour. 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 and is hairy near its base. The sepals are pale yellow, long with about 5 hairy white lobes. 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 spreading, yellow, egg-shaped, long with a hairy edge. The style is long and straight or slightly curved and has purple hairs near the tip. Flowering time is mainly from September to October.

Taxonomy and naming

''Verticordia penicillaris'' was first formally described 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 1859 from a specimen collected by

Augustus Oldfield Augustus Frederick Oldfield (1821–1887) was an English botanist and zoologist who made large collections of plant specimens in Australia. Oldfield was born on 12 January 1821 in London, England. He made botanical collections in Tasmania, the coa ...

and the description was published in '' Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae''. 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 ...

(''penicillaris'') is a Latin word meaning "of a little tail" or "of a painter's brush" referring to the brush-like tip of the styles. In his review of the genus in 1991,

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 ...

placed this species in subgenus ''Verticordia'', section ''Penicillaris'' along with '' V. dasystylis''.George, A.S. (1991) New taxa, combinations and typifications in ''Verticordia'' (Myrtaceae: Chamelaucieae). ''Nuytsia'' 7(3): 254

Distribution and habitat

This verticordia is found between the Kalbarri National Park, the

Arrowsmith River The Arrowsmith River lies within the Mid West region of Western Australia. The explorer George Grey found the river on 11 April 1839, on his second expedition along the west coast. He named it after the distinguished English cartographer Joh ...

and Mullewa where it usually grows in shallow, gritty soil in areas that are wet in winter in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains

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 penicillaris'' is classified as " Priority Four" 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 en ...

, meaning that is rare or near threatened.

Use in horticulture

This verticordia is usually propagated from cuttings and grows well in gravelly or sandy soils. Once established it is both frost and drought tolerant and has grown in the summer rainfall areas of eastern Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15389579 penicillaris Rosids of Western Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1859 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller