Agonis baxteri
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{Use Australian English|date=July 2024}}
{{speciesbox
|image_caption =
|genus = Agonis
|species = baxteri
|image = Agonis baxteri flowers.jpg
|authority = (Benth.) J.R.Wheeler & N.G.Marchant{{cite web |title=Agonis baxteri |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/209258|website=Australian Plant Census |access-date=6 October 2020}}
|synonyms =
}}
File:Agonis baxteri habit.jpg]]
Agonis baxteri is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect, sometimes bushy shrub with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and usually white flowers with 23 to 32 stamens.
Description
Agonis baxteri is an upright, often spindly shrub that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|2|m}}, its branchlets usually glabrous. Its leaves are dark green, elliptic to egg-shaped or narrowly so, with the narrower end towards the base, mostly {{cvt|25–55|mm}} long and {{cvt|7–20|mm}} wide, usually with three longitudinal veins. The flowers are arranged in clusters {{cvt|15–25|mm}} in diameter with hairy, grey, more or less round bracts {{cvt|2.5–3.5|mm}} long and similar bracteoles. The flowers are usually white, {{cvt|12–14|mm}} in diameter with sepals {{cvt|1.8–2.5|mm}} long, the petals {{cvt|5–9|mm}} long, and usually 23 to 32 stamens mostly {{cvt|1–2|mm}} long. Flowering mainly occurs from October to December and the fruits are in clusters {{cvt|10–15|mm}} wide. The species is superficially similar to Taxandria marginata.{{cite journal |last1=Wheeler |first1=Judith R. |last2=Marchant |first2=Neville G. |title=A revision of the Western Australian genus Agonis (Myrtaceae) and two new segregate genera Taxandria and Paragonis |journal=Nuytsia |date=2007 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=398–399 |url=https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/science/nuytsia/414.pdf |access-date=6 October 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://anpsa.org.au/plant_profiles/agonis-baxteri/|title=Agonis baxteri|accessdate= 6 October 2022|publisher=Australian Native Plants Society}}{{FloraBase| name = Agonis baxteri| id = 20330}}
Taxonomy
In 1867, George Bentham described Melaleuca baxteri in Flora Australiensis from specimens collected by William Baxter at "King George's Sound or to the eastward".{{cite web|title=Melaleuca baxteri|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/509060 |publisher=APNI|access-date=6 October 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Bentham |first1=George |last2=von Mueller |first2=Ferdinand |title=Flora Australiensis |volume=3 |date=1867 |publisher=Lovell Reeve & Co. |location=London |page=138 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/41807#page/146/mode/1up |access-date=6 October 2022}} In 2007, Judy Wheeler and Neville Marchant changed the name to Agonis baxteri in the journal Nuytsia.{{cite web|title=Agonis baxteri|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/620717 |publisher=APNI|access-date=6 October 2022}} The specific epithet (baxteri) honours the collector of the type specimens.{{cite book |last1=Sharr |first1=Francis Aubi |last2=George |first2=Alex |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2019 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=144 |edition=3rd}}
Distribution and habitat
Agonis baxteri is found on sandplains, dunes, swamps, stony hills, disturbed and disturbed areas along the south coast in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia in the Esperance Plains and Mallee IBRA bioregions where it grows in sand and loam over quartzite, limestone or granite.
Conservation status
This species is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q15396544}}
Category:Endemic flora of Southwest Australia