Petrophile shuttleworthiana
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| Petrophile shuttleworthiana | |
|---|---|
 | |
| In the Wongan Hills district of Western Australia | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Proteales |
| Family: | Proteaceae |
| Genus: | Petrophile |
| Species: | P. shuttleworthiana |
| Binomial name | |
| Petrophile shuttleworthiana | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Petrophila shuttleworthiana Meisn. orth. var. | |
Petrophile shuttleworthiana is a flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a prickly shrub with creamy-white flowers growing within a radius of about 400 km (200 mi) of Perth.[2]
Petrophile shuttleworthiana is an upright, open shrub that can reach around 2 m (7 ft) tall. Its branches and leaves are glabrous, the leaves about 3.5–7 mm (0.1–0.3 in) long, deeply divided into between 3 and 7 rigid lobes, each with a sharp point on the end. Individual flowers are about 11 mm (0.4 in) long, cream, creamy white or yellow and glabrous.[3] They are terminal (appearing at the end of stems) and appear in spring.[4]
Taxonomy and naming
The species was first formally described by Swiss botanist Carl Meissner in 1856 from a specimen collected in 1844 near the Swan River by James Drummond.[5][6] The specific epithet recognises the English collector, botanist and malacologist Robert J. Shuttleworth.[7] The closest relative of P. shuttleworthiana is Petrophile macrostachya.[4]