Cryptandra exilis
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Speciesbox
|image =
|genus = Cryptandra
|species = exilis
|authority = D.I.Morris{{cite web |title=Cryptandra exilis |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/119310 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=14 November 2022}}
}}
Cryptandra exilis, commonly known as slender pearlflower,{{cite web |title=Cryptandra exilis - slender pearlflower |url=https://www.naturalvaluesatlas.tas.gov.au/downloadattachment?id=20032 |publisher=Tasmanian Government Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment |access-date=14 November 2022}} is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to Tasmania. It is a small, straggly, low-growing shrub with linear leaves and tube-shaped white or cream-coloured flowers arranged in small groups on the ends of branches.
Description
Cryptandra exilis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|40|cm}} and has slender, low-lying or straggly stems. Its leaves are arranged in small bundles on short side-branches and are linear with the edges rolled under and {{cvt|2–7|mm}} long. The flowers are usually arranged in groups of 2 to 6 on the ends of the main branches with dark brown bracts at the base, half as long as the sepal tube. The sepals are white or cream-coloured and joined at the base, forming a densely hairy tube more than {{cvt|2|mm}} long with lobes about {{cvt|1.5|mm}} long. The petals form a hood over the stamens and the style is about {{cvt|2|mm}} long. Flowering occurs from September to May, and the fruit is a capsule about {{cvt|2.5|mm}} long.{{cite web |last1=Jordan |first1=Greg |title=Cryptandra exilis |url=https://www.utas.edu.au/dicotkey/dicotkey/RHAMN/sCryptandra_exilis.htm |publisher=University of Tasmania |access-date=14 November 2022}}
Taxonomy
Cryptandra exilis was first formally described in 1991 by Dennis Ivor Morris in Aspects of Tasmanian Botany - a tribute to Winifred Curtis from specimens collected by [https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/moscal-antonius-mircea.html Tony Moscal] in 1980.{{cite web|title=Cryptandra exilis|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/553500|publisher=APNI|accessdate=14 November 2022}} The specific epithet (exilis) means "small" or "weak".{{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=4097}}
Distribution and habitat
Slender pearlflower grows in heathy or shrubby forest from Cape Barren Island to the Tasman Peninsula on the east coast of Tasmania.