Homoranthus tropicus
Homoranthus tropicus in the Australian National Botanic Gardens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Myrtales
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Homoranthus
Species:
H. tropicus
Binomial name
Homoranthus tropicus
Occurrence data from AVH

Homoranthus tropicus is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to tropical north Queensland. It is a shrub with curved, club-shaped leaves and white flowers in a corymb-like arrangement on the ends of branchlets.

Description

Homoranthus tropicus is a shrub to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) high. The leaves are arranged opposite, club-shaped, curved, shortly pointed and tapering at the base to a short petiole 4–8 mm (0.16–0.31 in) long, 0.5 mm (0.020 in) wide and marked with tiny dots. The white flowers are on a pedicel 0.5–1.5 mm (0.020–0.059 in) long, the small bracts 1–1.5 mm (0.039–0.059 in) long, keeled and ending in a short point. The calyx tube, distinctly angled and up to 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long, lobes 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long. The petals are broadly egg-shaped to almost round, margins smooth, about 2 mm (0.079 in) long and the style up to 7 mm (0.28 in) long. Flowering occurs sporadically throughout the year, primarily February to July and the fruit is a single seed retained in the calyx.[2][3]

Taxonomy and naming

Homoranthus tropicus was first formally described in 1981 by Norman Byrnes from a specimen he collected north of Laura in 1975 and the description was published in Austrolbaileya.[2][4] The specific epithet (tropicus) means "tropical".[5]

Distribution and habitat

This species grows in northern Queensland in heath or shrubby woodland on shallow rocky soils over sandstone.[3]

Conservation status

It has a restricted distribution and considered rare by Briggs and Leigh (1996) given a ROTAP conservation code of 2R.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Homoranthus tropicus". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  2. 1 2 Byrnes, Norman (1981). "Homoranthus tropicus". Austrobaileya. 1 (4): 375. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Copeland, Lachlan M.; Craven, Lyn A.; Bruhl, Jeremy J. (2011). "A taxonomic review of Homoranthus (Myrtaceae:Chamelaucieae)". Australian Systematic Botany. 24 (6): 371. doi:10.1071/SB11015.
  4. ↑ "Homoranthus tropicus". APNI. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  5. ↑ Francis Aubie Sharr (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings. Kardinya, Western Australia: Four Gables Press. p. 329. ISBN 9780958034180.
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