Cryptandra pungens

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 0.2–1 m (7.9 in – 3 ft 3.4 in) with many short branches ending with thin spines. Its leaves mostly in bundles and are 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long. The flowers are white, each on a pedicel 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long with minute, overlapping brown bracts at the base. The sepals are about 1.6 mm (0.063 in) 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.^[2][3] 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.^[4][5] The specific epithet (pungens) means "ending in a sharp, hard point".^[6]

Cryptandra pungens
In Wongan Hills
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rhamnaceae
Genus:	Cryptandra
Species:	C. pungens
Binomial name
Cryptandra pungens Steud.[1]

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.^[3]