Conospermum brachyphyllum

Conospermum brachyphyllum is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an open shrub thread-like leaves, and panicles of woolly, white flowers.

Conospermum brachyphyllum
Near Popanyinning
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Conospermum
Species:	C. brachyphyllum
Binomial name
Conospermum brachyphyllum Lindl.[1]
Synonyms[1]
Conospermum brachyphyllum Lindl. var. brachyphyllum Conospermum brachyphyllum var. laxifolium Benth. Conospermum brachyphyllum var. rigidum Benth.

Description

Conospermum brachyphyllum is an open shrub that typically grows to a height of 1 m (3 ft 3 in). It has ascending, thread-like leaves, 22–55 mm (0.87–2.17 in) long and 0.4–0.75 mm (0.016–0.030 in) wide. The flowers are arranged in a panicle of spikes on a peduncle 15–80 mm (0.59–3.15 in) long with bluish-brown bracteoles 2.5–4 mm (0.098–0.157 in) long and 1.8–3 mm (0.071–0.118 in) wide with a woolly base. The flowers are white, forming a tube 3–9 mm (0.12–0.35 in) long, the upper lip egg-shaped, 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) long and 0.8–1.3 mm (0.031–0.051 in) wide, the lower lip joined for 1.5–2.8 mm (0.059–0.110 in) long with lobes 0.3–0.7 mm (0.012–0.028 in) long. Flowering occurs from August to October.^[2][3]

Taxonomy

Conospermum brachyphyllum was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley in his A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony.^[4][5] The specific epithet (brachyphyllum) means "short-leaved".^[6]

Distribution

This species of Conospermum grows in sand over laterite or in gravel between Moora and Geraldton in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.^[2][3]