Cryptandra armata
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Speciesbox
|image = Cryptandra armata.jpg
|image_caption = In Myall Park Botanic Garden
|genus = Cryptandra
|species = armata
|authority = C.T.White & W.D.Francis{{cite web |title=Cryptandra armata |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/97281 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=28 August 2022}}
}}
Cryptandra armata is a flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to Queensland. It is a shrub with spiny branchlets, spatula-shaped to lance-shaped or egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and creamy-white tube-shaped to bell-shaped flowers.
Description
Cryptandra armata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|1.5|m}} and has branchlets {{cvt|0.5–1.5|m}} long, covered with hairs when young, and ending in a sharp spine. The leaves are spatula-shaped or lance-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base and often clustered, {{cvt|1.4-5.2|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.4-1.4|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|0.3-0.5|mm}} long. There are narrow triangular stipules {{cvt|0.9–1.4|mm}} long at the base of the petioles. The flowers are usually borne singly on short pedicels with brown bracts at the base. The floral tube is {{cvt|2.5-3.0|mm}} long, the lobes {{cvt|1.0–1.6|mm}} long and the petals are white, protruding {{cvt|1.0–1.2|mm}} beyond the end of the floral tube, and hooded. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is an elliptic capsule, the seeds about {{cvt|2.3|mm}} long with a white aril.{{cite journal |last1=Bean |first1=Anthony R. |title=New species of Cryptandra Sm. and Stenanthemum Reissek (Rhamnaceae) from northern Australia. |journal=Austrobaileya |date=2004 |volume=6 |issue=4 |page=922 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41739069 |access-date=28 August 2022}}{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=Cyril T. |last2=Francis |first2=William D. |title=Contributions to the Queensland Flora. |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland |date=1922 |volume=33 |pages=153–154 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/49268#page/185/mode/1up |access-date=28 August 2022}}
Taxonomy and naming
Cryptandra armata was first formally described in 1922 by Cyril Tenison White and William Douglas Francis in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland from specimens collected at Barakula.{{cite web |title=Cryptandra armata |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/507302 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=28 August 2022}} The specific epithet (armata ) means "armed".{{cite book |last1=Sharr |first1=Francis Aubi |last2=George |first2=Alex |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2021 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=137 |edition=4th}}