''Zieria tenuis'' is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and endemic to the northern inland of Queensland. It is an open, straggly shrub with wiry branches, three-part leaves and groups of nine to twelve flowers with four white or pinkish

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. It is similar to ''Z. collina'' but has larger

s, and to ''Z. cytisoides'' which has different leaf venation and differently shaped leaflets.

Description

''Zieria tenuis'' is an open, straggly shrub which grows to a height of and has wiry branches covered with soft hairs. The leaves are composed of three oblong to narrow elliptic leaflets, the central leaflet one long and wide. The leaves have a petiole long. The lower surface of the leaflets have raised veins and the upper surface is covered with minute, star-like hairs. The flowers are arranged in groups of nine to twelve 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 ...

s, the groups shorter than the leaves. The groups are on a stalk long and only about wide. The flowers are surrounded by scale-like

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s long which remain during flowering. The sepals are triangular, about long and wide and the four petals are white or pinkish, elliptic to egg-shaped, about long and wide with star-like hairs on both surfaces. There are four stamens. Flowering occurs between April and July and is followed by fruits which are smooth, glabrous capsules about long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

''Zieria tenuis'' 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 Irwin Forster from a specimen collected from Agate Creek near

Forsayth Forsayth is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia. In the , Forsayth had a population of 129 people. Geography Forsayth is in Far North Queensland approximately by road from Cairns. The town is the terminu ...

and the description was published in '' Austrobaileya''. 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 ...

(''tenuis'') is a Latin word meaning "thin", referring to the thin flower stalk.

Distribution and habitat

This zieria occurs near Forsayth and in the White Mountains National Park in the Desert Uplands and Einasleigh Uplands bioregions.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18082087 tenuis Sapindales of Australia Flora of Queensland Plants described in 2007 Taxa named by Marco Duretto Taxa named by Paul Irwin Forster