Petrophile megalostegia
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| Petrophile megalostegia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Near Geraldton | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Proteales |
| Family: | Proteaceae |
| Genus: | Petrophile |
| Species: | P. megalostegia |
| Binomial name | |
| Petrophile megalostegia | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Petrophile megalostegia is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a shrub with needle-shaped or flattened, sometimes S-shaped leaves with a sharply-pointed tip, and more or less cylindrical heads of silky-hairy, yellow to cream-coloured flowers.
Petrophile megalostegia is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1 m (1 ft 0 in – 3 ft 3 in) high and has glabrous branchlets and leaves. The leaves are cylindrical or flattened, straight or S-shaped, 25–85 mm (0.98–3.35 in) long and sharply pointed. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets in more or less spherical heads surrounded by glabrous egg-shaped or elliptic involucral bracts. The flowers are up to 30 mm (1.2 in) long, yellow, cream-coloured or creamy yellow and silky-hairy. Flowering mainly occurs from August to October and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in an oval head up to 15 mm (0.59 in) long.[2][3]
Taxonomy
Petrophile megalostegia was first formally described in 1876 by Ferdinand von Mueller in the Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from material collected by James Drummond.[4][5] The specific epithet (megalostegia) means "large roof, tent or house" referring to the involucral bracts.[6]