Styphelia filamentosa

Styphelia filamentosa
Conservation status
Priority Three — Poorly Known Taxa (DEC)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Ericaceae
Genus:	Styphelia
Species:	S. filamentosa
Binomial name
Styphelia filamentosa Hislop & Puente-Lel.

Styphelia filamentosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low, compact, spreading shrub with egg-shaped to narrowly elliptic leaves, and white, tube-shaped flowers arranged singly, or in groups of up to four in leaf axils.

Description

Styphelia filamentosa is a low, compact, spreading shrub that typically grows up to 30 cm (12 in) high and 50 cm (20 in) wide, its young branchlets with a few sparse hairs. The leaves are erect, narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly elliptic, 5–11 mm (0.20–0.43 in) long and 1.2–2.0 mm (0.047–0.079 in) wide on a petiole 0.3–0.6 mm (0.012–0.024 in) long. There is a sharp point on the end of the leaves and both surfaces are glabrous, the upper surface dark green and the lower surface a much lighter shade of green. The flowers are arranged singly or in groups of up to 4 in leaf axils, with egg-shaped to round bracts 0.4–1.0 mm (0.016–0.039 in) long and egg-shaped bracteoles 1.0–1.7 mm (0.039–0.067 in) long and 1.2–1.4 mm (0.047–0.055 in) long at the base. The sepals are narrowly egg-shaped, 2.5–3.2 mm (0.098–0.126 in) long and 1.0–1.2 mm (0.039–0.047 in) wide, the petals white, forming a tube 1.2–1.8 mm (0.047–0.071 in) long with lobes 2.3–2.8 mm (0.091–0.110 in) long. Flowering occurs from October to December and the fruit is a narrowly elliptic to more or less cylindrical, 2.1–2.5 mm (0.083–0.098 in) long and 0.9–1.1 mm (0.035–0.043 in) wide.

Taxonomy

Styphelia filamentosa was first formally described in 2017 by Michael Clyde Hislop and Caroline Puente-Lelievre in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected by Hislop in the Alexander Morrison National Park in 2008. The specific epithet (filamentosa) means "thread-like", referring to the thread-like lobes of the anthers.

Distribution and habitat

This styphelia grows in the understorey of heath on deep sand between Eneabba and the Coomallo Nature Reserve east of Jurien Bay in the Geraldton Sandplains bioregion of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Styphelia filamentosa is listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.