Phebalium speciosum I.Telford APNI* Description: Shrub to 3 m tall. Branchlets with rusty scales.
Leaves with mid-vein deeply impressed, lanceolate or narrow-elliptic, 25–84 mm long, 7.5–22 mm wide, obtuse; margin undulate, slightly recurved; petiole 3–4.7 mm long, channelled above; upper surface dark green, silvery stellate, becoming papillose with the ersoion of the hairs; lower surface silvery with rusty scales.
Inflorescence terminal with sessile umbels of 4–8 flowers; pedicels 7.5–10 mm long with rusty scales. Calyx cup-shaped; corolla white to pink, 6–8 petals, 4 adjacent and spreading, the other 2 or 4 erect, clawed. Stamens 12–14, filaments pink. Ovary with 6 or 7 carpels with rusty scales.
Cocci ellipsoid with rusty scales, seed longitudinally striate, black.
Flowering: Flowers June to August and February. Fruit in August.
Distribution and occurrence: Apparently restricted to Battery Hill and Callawajune Mountain SSW of Urbenville, north coast of NSW. Grows on steep slopes below cliff lines on acid volcanic plugs at 350-400 m altitude in open forest or heath on skeletal clay-loam soils. Associated species include Eucalytpus microcorys, Corymbia intermedia, Allocasuarina littoralis, Bossiaea rupicola and Leptospermum polygalifolium.
NSW subdivisions: NC
Threatened species: NSW BCA: Critically Endangered; Commonwealth EPBC: Critically Endangered
Known only from 2 populations.
Text by Louisa Murray Taxon concept: Telford, Ian R.H. (2013) Phebalium speciosum (Rutaceae: Boroniaeae), and endangered, narrowly endemic new species of north-eastern New South Wales. Telopea Volume 15: 51-55.
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
|