Common name: Clasping Twinleaf
Roepera howittii (F.Muell.) Beier & Thulin APNI* Synonyms: Zygophyllum howittii F.Muell. APNI*
Description: Spreading, erect or prostrate annual, all vegetative parts usually glaucous and purplish tinged.
Leaves of upper pairs fused at base and encircling the stem; upper leaves 4–10 mm long; leaflets short, obtuse, continuous with broad petiole so that the leaf appears sessile, cuneate, with 2 broad lobes at apex.
Sepals 4, usually purplish outside. Petals 4, sometimes only 3, obovate to oblanceolate, c. 2.5 mm long, scarcely exceeding the sepals, yellow. Stamens 6; filaments not winged. Fruiting pedicels slender, 3–7 mm long, usually recurved.
Fruit indehiscent, vertically 3-winged, 10–16 mm long; wings faintly reticulate, usually purplish tinged; by abortion only 1 fusiform-trigonous seed developing.
Flowering: May–November
Distribution and occurrence: Grows mainly on red sand dunes; west of Milparinka district. Also in SW Queensland, NE South Australia and southern Northern Territory.
NSW subdivisions: NFWP
Other Australian states: Qld S.A. N.T.
The only species in this genus with some of its parts in 3s and with opposite pairs of leaves joined at the base (Barker 2013).
Text by Hj. Eichler (1992); edited KL Wilson (Jan 2014)
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992); RM Barker, Flora of Australia vol. 26 (2013)
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.
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