Baeckea leptocaulis

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}

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|image = Baeckea leptocaulis.jpg

|image_caption = In the Australian National Botanic Gardens

|genus = Baeckea

|species = leptocaulis

|authority = Hook.f.{{cite web |title=Baeckea latifolia |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/104569 |website=Australian Plant Census |access-date=29 January 2022}}

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Baeckea leptocaulis is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to Tasmania. It is a shrub with linear leaves and small white flowers with five or six stamens.

Description

Baeckea leptocaulis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of {{cvt|0.3–1|m}} and has grey or brown branchlets. The leaves are linear, mostly {{cvt|4.5–10|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.8–1.2|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|0.8–1.4|mm}} long. The flowers are about {{cvt|6|mm}} in diameter and are borne in leaf axils on a peduncle about {{cvt|0.5|mm}} long, each flower on a pedicel {{cvt|1.5–3.5|mm}} long. The sepals are oblong, about {{cvt|0.8|mm}} long and the petals are white, more or less round and {{cvt|1.6–2.2|mm}} long. There are five or six stamens, the ovary has two locules and the style is about {{cvt|1.0|mm}} long. Flowering occurs between December and March and the fruit is a cylindrical to bell-shaped capsule {{cvt|2.0–2.8|mm}} long and wide.{{Cite journal|last=Bean|first=Anthony|date=1997|title=A revision of Baeckea (Myrtaceae) in eastern Australia, Malesia and south-east Asia|journal=Telopea|volume=7|issue=3|pages=251–252|doi=10.7751/telopea19971018|issn=0312-9764|doi-access=free}}{{cite web |last1=Jordan |first1=Greg |title=Baeckea leptocaulis |url=https://www.utas.edu.au/dicotkey/dicotkey/MYRTS/sBaeckea_leptocaulis.htm |publisher=University of Tasmania |access-date=29 January 2022}}

Taxonomy

Baeckea leptocaulis was first formally described in 1840 by Joseph Dalton Hooker in William Jackson Hooker's Icones Plantarum from specimens collected by Ronald Gunn at Rocky Cape.{{cite web|title=Baeckea leptocaulis|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/26849|publisher=APNI|access-date=29 January 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Hooker |first1=Joseph D. |last2=Hooker |first2=William Jackson|editor-last1=Hooker|editor-first1=William J. |title=Icones Plantarum |volume=3 |date=1840 |page=298 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54427#page/187/mode/1up |access-date=29 January 2022}} The specific epithet (leptocaulis) means "thin-stemmed".{{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=151 |edition=3rd}}

Distribution and habitat

This baeckea grows in wet heathland and sedgeland in western and central Tasmania.

References