''Zieria cephalophila'' is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is only found on a single, isolated mountain in Queensland. It is a compact shrub with wiry branches, warty, three-part leaves and one to three white flowers, each with four

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 and four

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, in 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 ...

Description

''Zieria cephalophila'' is a compact shrub which grows to a height of and has warty, wiry branches with scattered hairs. The leaves have a petiole long with the central leaflet is long, wide with the other two leaflets slightly smaller. The leaflets have a distinct, warty mid-vein on the lower surface and the edges of the leaf are rolled under. The flowers are white and are arranged singly or in groups of up to three in leaf axils on a stalk long, the groups shorter than the leaves. The four petals are narrow elliptical in shape, about long and densely hairy on both surfaces and the four stamens are up to long. Flowering appears to occur from November to May and is followed by fruit which is a glabrous capsule, about long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

''Zieria cephalophila'' was first formally described in 2007 by

Marco Duretto Marco Duretto (born 1964) is a manager and senior research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney in Australia. His primary research interests are systematics and conservation of Rutaceae, Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, Stylidiaceae and evolut ...

and Paul Forster from a specimen collected on a rocky mountain top known as Sydney Heads near Nebo in Queensland. The description was published in '' Austrobaileya''. Duretto and Forster derived 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 ...

(''cephalophila'') "from the Greek ''cephalus'' (head) and ''philus'' (loving)", alluding to the populations of this plant occurring on Sydney Heads in the

Homevale National Park Homevale is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 821 km northwest of Brisbane. The landscape is dominated by cliffs, peaks and spires. Fossils dating from the Permian period (280-225 million years) have been found here. The average el ...

, Queensland. In ancient Greek ''kephalē'' (κεφαλή) was used for "head".Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. '' Cephalus'' is the Latinized version of ''Kephalos'' (Κέφαλος), first name of various Greek mythological and historical figures.Lewis, C.T. & Short, C. (1879). ''A Latin dictionary founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Distribution and habitat

This zieria grows in woodland and shrubland on rocky, volcanic outcrops in the Homevale National Park.

Conservation

''Zieria cephalophila'' is listed as "Least concern" under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18083371 cephalophila Sapindales of Australia Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Marco Duretto Plants described in 2007 Taxa named by Paul Irwin Forster