Cryptandra intratropica
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Speciesbox
|image =
|genus = Cryptandra
|species = intratropica
|status_system =
|status =
|authority = W.Fitzg.{{cite web |title=Cryptandra intratropica |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/87615 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=29 December 2022}}
}}
Cryptandra intratropica is a flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is a slender, erect or spreading shrub with wedge-shaped to oblong or egg-shaped leaves and clusters of yellow to cream-coloured, tube-shaped flowers arranged in head-like clusters.
Description
Cryptandra intratropica is a slender, erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of {{cvt|0.5–2.5|m}}, its branchlets not spiny, its young stems covered with rust-coloured, shaggy hairs. The leaves are wedge-shaped to oblong or egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, {{cvt|6.5–11|mm}} long with the edges turned down. The upper surface of the leaves is woolly-hairy, the lower surface shaggy-hairy, and there brown stipules at the base of each leaf. The flowers are yellow or cream-coloured and borne in head-like clusters in leaf axils, each flower on a pedicel much shorter than the sepals and with 5 or more overlapping brown bracts at the base. The sepals are about {{cvt|2|mm}} long, increasing to {{cvt|4|mm}} long in the fruit, and are woolly-hairy, joined to form a top-shaped tube with pale-coloured lobes shorter than the sepal tube. Flowering occurs from March to June.{{cite journal |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=William V. |title=The Botany of the Kimberleys, north-west Australia. |journal=Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia |date=1918 |volume=3 |pages=168–169 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/45894219#page/180/mode/1up |access-date=29 December 2022}}{{FloraBase|id=4798|name=Cryptandra intratropica}}
Taxonomy and naming
Cryptandra intratropica was first formally described in 1918 by William Vincent Fitzgerald in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens he collected "1,000ft. or more above the base of Mt. Broome".{{cite web|title=Cryptandra intratropica|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/507841|publisher=APNI|accessdate=29 December 2022}} The specific epithet (intratropica ) means "within the Tropics".{{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=226 |edition=3rd}}
Distribution and habitat
This cryptandra grows in a variety of sandstone habitats, mostly in near-coastal areas, mainly between the Bonaparte Archipelago and Talbot Bay in the Central Kimberley, Northern Kimberley and Victoria Bonaparte bioregions of inland Western Australia.{{cite journal |last1=Rye |first1=Barbara L. |title=The Rhamnaceae of the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. |journal=Nuytsia |date=1997 |volume=11 |issue=2 |page=290 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/224897#page/150/mode/1up |access-date=29 December 2022}}
Conservation status
Cryptandra intratropica is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
References
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{{Taxonbar|from=Q15538919}}
Category:Flora of Western Australia