Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Darwinia biflora

Common name

A Darwinia

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Open forest, woodland, heath, shrubland, and rocky ridges, usually where a shallow layer of shale or laterite overlays sandstone. Sydney area mainly north of the Harbour.

Notes

Shrub to 0.8 m high. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, opposite each other, often appressed to the branchlets, 0.6–1 cm long, about 1 mm wide, hairless. Flowers with 5 curved petals, each 1.2-1.8 mm long, and 5 entire or toothed sepals less than 0.5 mm long, much shorter than the petals, at the top of the floral tube. Floral tube green, 5–8 mm long, 1–1.5 mm in diameter, with broad, rounded ribs. Style straight or slightly curved, 10–14 mm long, yellow-green, sometimes becoming red. Each flower surrounded by 2 purple-red bracteoles which fall at the time the flowers open.  Flowers in clusters of 1-4, mostly paired. Flowering: winter–spring.

Vulnerable Australia. Vulnerable NSW. Provisions of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.

NSW Threatened Species profile with photos:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10202 (accessed 5 January 2021)

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Darwinia~biflora (accessed 5 January 2021)

Additional information in Briggs, B.G. (1962) The New South Wales Species of Darwinia. Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium. 3(3): 144, fig. 2a (map), 5c