Cryptandra pungens

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}

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

{{Speciesbox

|image = Cryptandra pungens.jpg

|image_caption = In [[Wongan Hills, Western Australia|

Wongan Hills]]

|genus = Cryptandra

|species = pungens

|authority = Steud.{{cite web |title=Cryptandra pungens |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/87896|publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=3 February 2023}}

|synonyms_ref =

|synonyms =

}}

Cryptandra pungens is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect, slender, spiny shrub that typically grows to a height of {{cvt|0.2–1|m}} with many short branches ending with thin spines. Its leaves mostly in bundles and are {{cvt|4–6|mm}} long. The flowers are white, each on a pedicel {{cvt|1–2|mm}} long with minute, overlapping brown bracts at the base. The sepals are about {{cvt|1.6|mm}} long and joined at the base to form a broadly bell-shaped tube, with lobes half as long as the tube. Flowering occurs from May to November.{{cite book |last1=Bentham |first1=George |title=Flora Australiensis |volume=1 |date=1863 |publisher=Lovell Reeve & Co. |location=London |page=443 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6721561#page/501/mode/1up |access-date=3 February 2023}}{{FloraBase|id=4809|name=Cryptandra pungens}} The species was first formally described in 1845 by Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae from specimens collected in sandy forest near Perth.{{cite web |title=Cryptandra pungens |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/805217 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=3 February 2023}}{{cite book |last1=von Steudel |first1=Ernst G. |editor-last1=Lehmann |editor-first1=Johann G.C. |editor-last2=Preiss |editor-first2=Ludwig |title=Plantae preissianae sive enumeratio plantarum quas in australasia occidentali et meridionali-occidentali |date=1845 |publisher=Sumptibus Meissneri |location=Hamburg |page=187 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/498359#page/192/mode/1up |access-date=3 February 2023}} The specific epithet (pungens) means "ending in a sharp, hard point".{{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=287 |edition=3rd}}

Cryptandra pungens grows on coastal limestone, granite outcrops, sandplains and hills in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Mallee and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia. It is listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.