Cryptandra alpina
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Speciesbox
|image = Cryptandra alpina.jpg
|genus = Cryptandra
|species = alpina
|authority = Hook.f.{{cite web |title=Cryptandra alpina |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/87192 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=17 August 2022}}
}}
Cryptandra alpina, commonly known as alpine pearlflower,{{cite web |last1=Mulcahy |first1=Aaron |title=Cryptandra alpina |url=https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2008/cryptandra-alpina.html |publisher=Australian National Botanic Gardens |access-date=17 August 2022}} is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to Tasmania. It is a small, prostrate shrub with slender branches, linear leaves, and tube-shaped white flowers arranged singly on the ends of branches.
Description
Cryptandra alpina is a prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|20|cm}} and has many slender, wiry branches usually less than {{cvt|15|cm}} long. Its leaves are linear, cylindrical and glabrous, {{cvt|2–4|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.5|mm}} wide. The flowers are arranged singly on the ends of branches with broad, overlapping brown bracts at the base, the inner bracts often nearly as long as the sepal tube. The sepals are white and joined at the base, forming a tube more than {{cvt|4|mm}} long and woolly hairy on the outside with egg-shaped lobes slightly shorter than the sepal tube. The petals are white, tube-shaped and form a hood over the stamens.{{cite book |last1=Bentham |first1=George |last2=von Mueller |first2=Ferdinand |title=Flora Australiensis |volume=1 |date=1863 |publisher=Lovell Reeve & Co. |location=London |pages=441–442 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/3669#page/499/mode/1up |access-date=17 August 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Rodway |first1=Leonard |title=The Tasmanian Flora |date=1903 |publisher=Tasmanian Government Printer |location=Hobart |page=29 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37374781#page/73/mode/1up |access-date=17 August 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Jordan |first1=Greg |title=Cryptandra |url=https://www.utas.edu.au/dicotkey/dicotkey/RHAMN/sCryptandra_alpina.htm |publisher=University of Tasmania |access-date=17 August 2022}}
Taxonomy
Cryptandra alpina was first formally described in 1855 by Joseph Dalton Hooker in The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. Discovery ships Erebus and Terror from specimens collected by Ronald Campbell Gunn.{{cite web|title=Cryptandra alpina|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/507156|publisher=APNI|accessdate=17 August 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Hooker |first1=Joseph Dalton |title=The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. discovery ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839-1843 :under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross (Part III Flora Tasmaniae) |date=1860 |publisher=Lovell Reeve |location=London |page=75 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/90337#page/207/mode/1up |accessdate=17 August 2022}} The specific epithet (alpina) means "alpine".{{cite book |author=William T. Stearn |title=Botanical Latin. History, grammar, syntax, terminology and vocabulary |date=1992 |publisher=Timber Press |location=Portland, Oregon |edition=4th|page=367}}
Distribution and habitat
Alpine pearlflower grows in alpine and subalpine areas in the Central Plateau area of Tasmania at an altitude of about {{cvt|3800|ft}}.