Epacris gunnii
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Speciesbox
|image=Epacris gunnii.jpg
|image_caption = In Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne
|taxon = Epacris gunnii
|authority = Hook.f.{{cite web|title=Epacris gunnii|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/77621|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=30 May 2022}}
|synonyms = Epacris microphylla var. gunnii (Hook.f.) Benth.
}}
Epacris gunnii is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect shrub with hairy branchlets, concave, sharply-pointed, broadly egg-shaped leaves, and tube-shaped, white flowers arranged along the stems.
Description
Epacris gunnii is a shrub with a few slender erect branches typically growing to a height of up to about {{cvt|1|m}}, the branches softly-hairy. The leaves are glabrous, concave, broadly egg-shaped, {{cvt|2.0–6.5|mm}} long, {{cvt|1.8–5.5|mm}} wide, sharply-pointed and evenly-spaced along the branches. The flowers are arranged along {{cvt|20–30|cm}} of the branches in leaf axils, each flower on a pedicel about {{cvt|1|mm}} long with up to 21 bracts at the base. The sepals are egg-shaped, {{cvt|2.2–3.0|mm}} long, the petal tube {{cvt|1.2–2.0|mm}} long with lobes {{cvt|1.7–2.7|mm}} long, the anthers slightly longer than the petal tube. Flowering occurs from April to October in New South Wales, from September to December in Tasmania. In Victoria, flowering can occur in any month, but from October to February at higher elevations. The fruit is a capsule {{cvt|1.4–1.8|mm}} in diameter.{{cite web |url=http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Epacris~gunnii |title=Epacris gunnii | accessdate=2010-03-28 | work= PlantNET - New South Wales Flora Online | publisher=Royal Botanic Garden Sydney}}{{cite web |last1=Albrecht |first1=David E. |title=Epacris gunnii |url=https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/0b8044b6-7c56-492e-8571-2f0142b9ac66 |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria |access-date=30 May 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Wood |first1=Betty |title=Epacris gunnii |url=https://apps.lucidcentral.org/plants_se_nsw/text/entities/epacris_gunnii.htm |publisher=Lucid Keys |access-date=30 May 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Jordan |first1=Greg |title=Epacris gunnii |url=https://www.utas.edu.au/dicotkey/dicotkey/EPACRIDS/sEpacris_gunnii.htm |publisher=University of Tasmania |access-date=30 May 2022}}
Taxonomy
Epacris gunnii was first formally described in 1847 by Joseph Dalton Hooker in the London Journal of Botany, from specimens collected in the "Marlborough and Hampshire Hills" by Gunn and [https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/lawrence-robert.html Lawrence].{{cite web|title=Epacris gunnii|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/491821 |publisher=APNI|access-date=30 May 2022}}{{cite journal |last1=Hooker |first1=Joseph Dalton |title=Florae Tasmaniae Spicilegium: or, Contributions towards a Flora of Van Diemen's Land. |journal=London Journal of Botany |date=1847 |volume=6 |page=272 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/6317#page/274/mode/1up |access-date=30 May 2022}}
Distribution and habitat
This epacris grows in forest, heath and grassland, sometime on stream banks and occurs on the coast and tablelands of eastern New South Wales, and mostly in higher places in eastern Victoria and Tasmania. In New South Wales it grows on peaty soils in association with Leptospermum glaucescens, Sprengelia incarnata and Ranunculus species.