Leucopogon elegans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Leucopogon elegans | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Subspecies elegans | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Ericales |
| Family: | Ericaceae |
| Genus: | Leucopogon |
| Species: | L. elegans |
| Binomial name | |
| Leucopogon elegans | |
 | |
| Occurrence data from AVH | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
Styphelia blepharophylla F.Muell. nom. illeg. | |
Leucopogon elegans is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub with egg-shaped leaves, and white or pink, tube-shaped flowers densely bearded on the inside.
Leucopogon elegans is an erect or spreading shrub that typically grows up to a height of 50 cm (20 in) high and wide. Its leaves are narrowly egg-shaped to egg-shaped, 3.4–7.5 mm (0.13–0.30 in) long, 1.5–3.1 mm (0.059–0.122 in) wide and directed upwards on a petiole 0.5–1.6 mm (0.020–0.063 in) long. The flowers are arranged in groups of 4 to 11 on the ends of branches and in upper leaf axils with egg-shaped bracts and bracteoles at the base. The sepals are narrowly egg-shaped, 2.1–3.5 mm (0.083–0.138 in) long, the petals white or pink and joined at the base to form a narrowly bell-shaped tube 1.9–2.3 mm (0.075–0.091 in) long, the lobes 2.1–3.0 mm (0.083–0.118 in) long and densely hairy on the inside. Flowering mainly occurs from June to November.[2][3]
Taxonomy and naming
Leucopogon elegans was first formally described in 1845 by Otto Wilhelm Sonder in Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae.[4][5] The specific epithet (elegans) means "fine" or "elegant".[6]
In 2009, Michael Clyde Hislop described two subspecies of L. elegans in the journal Nuytsia, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: