Spyridium bifidum

Spyridium bifidum is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|2|m}}, its young stems densely covered with simple and star-shaped hairs. The leaves are wedge-shaped to linear, {{cvt|3.2–13|mm}} long and {{cvt|1–5|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|0.7–1.5|mm}} long. The edges of the leaves are rolled under, the tip is sometimes forked with two lobes, both surfaces are covered with soft, star-shaped hairs, and there are triangular to narrowly egg-shaped stipules at the base. The more or less spherical heads of "flowers" are {{cvt|8–12|mm}} wide, the individual flowers more or less sessile and silky-hairy. Each head is surrounded by 4 or 5 velvety, white leaves, each more or less divided into two. The fruit is a light brown capsule {{cvt|2.2–2.5|mm}} long.{{cite journal |last1=Kellerman |first1=Jürgen |last2=Barker |first2=William R. |title=Revision of the Spyridium bifidum - S. halmaturinum complex (Rhamaceae: Pomaderreae) from South Australia and Victoria. |journal=Muelleria |date=2012 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=46–52 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/59605029#page/48/mode/1up}}{{cite web |title=Spyridium bifidum |url=http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/cgi-bin/speciesfacts_display.cgi?form=speciesfacts&name=Spyridium_bifidum |publisher=State Herbarium of South Australia |access-date=27 June 2022}}

This species was first formally described in 1855 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Trymalium bifidum in his Definitions of rare or hitherto undescribed Australian plants.{{cite web |title=Trimalium trifidum |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/707860 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=27 June 2022}}{{cite book |last1=von Mueller |first1=Ferdinand |title=Definitions of rare or hitherto undescribed Australian plants |date=1855 |publisher=Goodhugh & Trembath |location=Melbourne |page=42 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106365950&view=1up&seq=48 |access-date=27 June 2022}} In 1863, George Bentham changed the name to Spyridium bifidum in Flora Australiensis.{{cite web |title=Spyridium trifidum |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/550288 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=27 June 2022}} The specific epithet (bifidum) refers to the forked leaves of this species.

In 2012, Jürgen Kellermann and William Robert Barker described two subspecies of Spyridium bifidum in the journal Muelleria and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

• Spyridium bifidum (F.Muell.) F.Muell. ex Benth. subsp. bifidum{{cite web |title=Spyridium bifidum subsp. bifidum |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/238511 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=27 June 2022}} has wedge-shaped to heart-shaped leaves with a Y-shaped tip;
• Spyridium bifidum subsp. wanillae Kellermann & W.R.Barker{{cite web |title=Spyridium bifidum subsp. wanillae |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/238512 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=27 June 2022}} has narrowly lance-shaped to narrowly oblong or linear leaves that are rarely forked at the tip.

Spyridium bifidum grows in mallee shrubland on the Marble Range and on the hills to the east of Edillilie, the two subspecies separated by only {{cvt|5 or 6|km}}. Subspecies bifidum is restricted to the Marble Range, and flowers from June to September, subspecies wanillae is mostly found around Wanilla on the Eyre Peninsula, and flowers in July.

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{{Taxonbar|from1=Q17240951|from2=Q100497063|from3=Q66105049}}

bifidum

Category:Rosales of Australia

Category:Flora of South Australia

Category:Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller

Category:Plants described in 1855