Pityrodia lepidota
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pityrodia lepidota | |
|---|---|
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| Pityrodia lepidota leaves and flowers | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Lamiaceae |
| Genus: | Pityrodia |
| Species: | P. lepidota |
| Binomial name | |
| Pityrodia lepidota | |
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| Occurrence data from the ALA | |
Pityrodia lepidota is a flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small, densely-branched shrub with small leaves and whitish, bell-shaped flowers. The entire plant, apart from the petals, is densely covered with small, circular scales.
Pityrodia lepidota is a dense, multi-stemmed shrub which usually grows to a height of 0.3–0.7 m (1–2 ft) and which has its branches and leaves densely covered with ash coloured, circular scales. The leaves are stalkless, egg-shaped to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 5–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.08–0.1 in) wide.[2][3]
The flowers are solitary or in groups of two or three on short, scaly stalks in upper leaf axils. The flowers are surrounded by scaly, linear to lance-shaped bracts and tiny bracteoles. Single flowers are surrounded by leafy bracts 5–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in) long and the groups by scaly bracts about 2 mm (0.08 in) long. The five sepals are 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long, densely covered with scales on the outside and joined for about half their length to form a tube with five blunt lobes. The five petals are 7–10 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long, whitish, pale pink or pale lilac coloured and joined to form a bell-shaped tube with five lobes on the end. The tube is mostly glabrous except for a densely hairy ring around the ovary and a few hairs on the lowest petal lobe. The lowest, central lobe is oblong to egg-shaped, 4–5 mm (0.2–0.2 in) long, 3–4 mm (0.1–0.2 in) wide and the other lobes are slightly smaller. Flowering occurs from June to December, sometimes as late as March and is followed by hairy, oval-shaped fruit with the sepals still attached.[2][3]
Taxonomy and naming
This species was first formally described in 1883 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Chloanthes lepidota and published the description in Southern Science Record.[4][5] In 1904 Georg Pritzel changed the name to Pityrodia lepidota.[1][6] The specific epithet (lepidota) is derived from the Latin word lepidotus, a latinization of the ancient Greek word lepidōtos (λεπιδωτός), meaning "scaled", itself derived from the ancient Greek word lepis, genitive lepidos (λεπίς, genitive λεπίδος), meaning "scale".[7]
