Cyanothamnus fabianoides

Cyanothamnus fabianoides is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a compact shrub with many branches, simple, more or less cylindrical leaves and single white, pink or pale blue four-petalled flowers in the leaf axils.

Cyanothamnus fabianoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Rutaceae
Genus:	Cyanothamnus
Species:	C. fabianoides
Binomial name
Cyanothamnus fabianoides (Diels) Duretto & Heslewood[1]
Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium
Synonyms[1]
Boronia fabianoides (Diels) Paul G.Wilson Eriostemon fabianoides Diels

Habit near the Lake Hurlstone Nature Reserve

Description

Cyanothamnus fabianoides is a compact, multi-branched shrub that grows to a height of 0.3–0.6 m (1–2 ft). The leaves are simple, more or less cylindrical 5–15 mm (0.2–0.6 in) long with a channel on the upper surface and often bunched. The flowers are white, pink or pale blue and are borne singly in leaf axils on a fleshy pedicel 1–2 mm (0.04–0.08 in) long. The four sepals are fleshy, narrow triangular to egg-shaped and 1–3 mm (0.039–0.12 in) long. The four petals are broadly elliptic, 3–7 mm (0.1–0.3 in) long and thickened- glandular along the mid-line. The eight stamens are hairy.^[2][3]

Taxonomy and naming

This boronia was first formally described in 1904 by Ludwig Diels who gave it the name Eriostemon fabianoides and published the description in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie.^[4][5] The specific epithet (fabianoides) means "similar to a species of Fabiana".^[6] In a 2013 paper in the journal Taxon, Marco Duretto and others changed the name to Cyanothamnus fabianoides on the basis of cladistic analysis.^[7]

In 1998 Paul G. Wilson had described two subspecies.^[8] The names have subsequently been changed to reflect the change in the genus name:

• Cyanothamnus fabianoides subsp. fabianoides (the autonym) grows to a height 0.1–0.3 m (0.3–1 ft) and has white petals 3 mm (0.1 in) long with a green midrib;^[9]
• Cyanothamnus fabianoides subsp. roseus^[10] grows to a height of about 0.3 m (1 ft) and has white petals with a pink midrib.^[11]

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies fabianoides grows in eucalypt woodland between Norseman and the Esperance area but subspecies rosea grows on hillslopes, around granite rocks and undulating plains between Lake King and the Fraser Range east of Norseman.^[8]

Conservation

Both subspecies of C. fabianoides are classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.^[9][11]