Muiriantha
{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}
{{Speciesbox
|image = Muiriantha hassellii (7596738670).jpg
|display_parents = 3
|genus = Muiriantha
|parent_authority = C.A.Gardner{{cite web |title=Muiriantha |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/63998 |publisher=Australian Plant Census|accessdate=25 July 2020}}
|species = hassellii
|authority = (F.Muell.) C.A.Gardner
}}
Muiriantha is a genus of plant containing the single species Muiriantha hassellii and is endemic to the south coast of Western Australia. It is a small shrub with branchlets covered sparsely in hairs, leathery leaves and yellowish-green pendulous flowers.
Description
Muiriantha hassellii is a small under shrub to {{cvt|0.15-30|cm}} high with branchlets sparsely covered in soft, thin, separated, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are arranged alternately, aromatic, upright, narrowly elliptic, {{cvt|10-15|mm}} long, leathery, smooth and sparsely covered in soft hairs. The fragrant inflorescence are terminal on branches, tubular {{cvt|2-2.5|cm}} long, pendulous with small to medium sized bracts. The 5 yellowish-green petals are narrowly oblong to elliptic, rounded at the end, with a purple or green centre stripe, pedicels long and soft and weak hairs toward the petals apex. The spreading, dry fruit capsule ends in a sharp, short point. Flowering occurs from April to October.{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Paul G. |title=Flora of Australia-Volume 26 Meliaceae, Rutaceae, Zygophyllaceae |date=1999 |publisher=ABRS-Department of Environment & Heritage |location=Canberra/Melbourne |isbn=9780643109551 |pages=447}}{{cite web |last1=Grieve |first1=B.J |last2=Blackall |first2=W.E |title=Muiriantha hassellii |url=https://www.anbg.gov.au/common.names/ |website=FloraBase-the Western Australian Flora |publisher=Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions |accessdate=26 July 2020}}
Taxonomy and naming
Muiriantha hassellii was first formally described in 1887 by Ferdinand von Mueller, who gave it the name Chorilaena hassellii and published the description in the Victorian Naturalist.{{cite web |title=Chorilaena hassellii |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/474530 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |accessdate=26 July 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Mueller |first1=Ferdinand von |title=Description of a new Chorilaena |journal=The Victorian Naturalist |date=1889 |volume=6 |issue=5 |page=87 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/95004#page/121/mode/1up |accessdate=26 July 2020}} In 1933 Charles Austin Gardner changed the name to Muiria hassellii, but the name Muiria was already used for a plant in the family Aizoaceae. In 1943 Gardner changed the name to Muiriantha hassellii in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia.{{cite journal |last1=Gardner |first1=C.A |title=Contributiones Florae Australiae Occidentalis, XI |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia |date=1940–1941 |volume=27 |page=181 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/218104#page/193/mode/1up |accessdate=26 July 2020}}{{cite web |title=Muiriantha hassellii |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/470319 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |accessdate=26 July 2020}} The specific epithet (hassellii) was named in honour of Albert Hassell who collected the plant from the west end of the Stirling Range.
Distribution and habitat
This species has a restricted distribution found only in the south-west of Western Australia at Mount Manypeaks and the Stirling Range on heath in peaty sand, rocky clay on hillsides.{{cite web |last1=Paczkowska |first1=Grazyna |title=Muiriantha hassellii |url=https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/4490 |website=FloraBase-the Western Australian Flora |publisher=Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions |accessdate=27 July 2020}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from1=Q536343|from2=Q15393315}}
Category:Monotypic Rutaceae genera
Category:Zanthoxyloideae genera
Category:Endemic flora of Southwest Australia
Category:Plants described in 1943