Pimelea drupacea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cherry rice-flower | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pimelea drupacea in south-western Tasmania | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malvales |
| Family: | Thymelaeaceae |
| Genus: | Pimelea |
| Species: | P. drupacea |
| Binomial name | |
| Pimelea drupacea | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
Pimelea drupacea, commonly known as cherry rice-flower,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with elliptic leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and head-like clusters of white, tube-shaped flowers surrounded by two or four leaves.
Pimelea drupacea is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in), its young stems covered with short hairs. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 5–70 mm (0.20–2.76 in) long and 2–14.5 mm (0.079–0.571 in) wide on a short petiole. The flowers are white and borne in head-like clusters of 4 to 12, surrounded by two or four leaves 4.5–39 mm (0.18–1.54 in) long, each flower on a densely hairy pedicel. The floral tube is 4.5–5.5 mm (0.18–0.22 in) long, the sepals 1.8–3.5 mm (0.071–0.138 in) long and the fruit red and succulent. Flowering time is variously reported as August to October, mainly from September to January, or in late spring.[2][3][4]
Taxonomy
Pimelea drupacea was first formally described in 1805 by Jacques Labillardière in his Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen.[5][6] The specific epithet (drupacea) means "drupe-like".[7][8]