Flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flowering shrub. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

None

Family

Rhamnaceae

Notes

Shrub to 1.5m tall.  Leaves clustered, 0.15-0.5cm long, 0.5-1mm wide, flat, hairless and smooth to warty on the upper surface, densely hairy on the lower surface, which is usually not visible, edges rolled under, sometimes with a straight point.  Flowers white or cream becoming pink, tubular, with five lobes, in clusters of 1-10 flowers at the bases of the leaves.  Still included in Cryptandra propinqua in NSW and SA. 

Differs from Cryptandra propinqua in that it oocurs in the mallee regions of NSW, Vic and SA (Cryptandra propinqua is coastal in NSW); and the bracts at the base of the flowers are dark brown to black with fine drawn out tips (the bracts in Cryptandra propinqua are light brown and the tips are obtuse).

The description above is based on J Kellerman and F Udovic (2007) A Revision of the Cryptandra propinqua Complex (Rhamnaceae: Pomaderreae) Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales 128: 94-97

Description and photo (as Cryptandra propinqua) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 476