Spyridium phylicoides

Spyridium phylicoides, commonly known as narrow-leaved spyridium,^[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to South Australia. It is a low shrub with rigid, linear or lance-shaped leaves, and heads of woolly-hairy flowers.

Spyridium phylicoides
Near the Cape Spencer Lighthouse
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rhamnaceae
Genus:	Spyridium
Species:	S. phylicoides
Binomial name
Spyridium phylicoides Reissek[1]
Synonyms[1]
Trymalium vexilliferum F.Muell. ex Reissek nom. inval., pro syn. Spyridium vexilliferum auct. non (Hook.) Reissek: Bentham, G. (30 May 1863), Flora Australiensis 1: 433, p.p.

Habit in Cape Blanche Conservation Park

Description

Spyridium phylicoides is a low shrub with rigid, linear to lance-shaped leaves 5–14 mm (0.20–0.55 in) long and 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) wide with the edges rolled under. The upper surface of the leaves is glabrous and the lower surface woolly-hairy, but often hidden by the inrolled edges of the upper surface. The heads of "flowers" are more or less sessile, 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) in diameter and woolly-hairy with 2 to 5 floral leaves shorter but broader than the stem leaves. Flowering occurs from September to December and the fruit is an oval to more or less spherical capsule 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) long.^[2]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1858 by Siegfried Reissek in the journal Linnaea from specimens collected by Johann Wilhelmi, near Lake Hamilton in 1855.^[3][4] The specific epithet (phylicoides) means "Phylica-like".^[5]

Distribution

Spyridium phylicoides occurs in the Nullarbor, Eyre Peninsula, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island and South Eastern botanical regions of south-eastern South Australia.^[2]