Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Darwinia peduncularis

Flowering stems. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer S Douglas, Berowra Valley

Common name

A Darwinia

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Dry forest in shallow soil over sandstone, on and near rocky outcrops. Sydney area, mostly north from Cheltenham, and the Blue Mountains.

Notes

Shrub to 1.5 m high. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, opposite each other, 0.7–1.2 cm long, to 2.2 mm wide, hairless. Flowers with 5 curved petals, each 1.2-1.8 mm long, and 5 sepals less than 1 mm long, about half the length of the petals, at the top of the floral tube. Floral tube 9–12 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm in diameter, with broad, rounded, longitudinal ridges, white or cream above the ovary, sometimes becoming red near the top. Style strongly curved, 6–10 mm long, white. Flowers surrounded by 2 oblong bracteoles 4-8 mm long, purplish red, falling before the flowers open. Flowers in clusters of 1-4, usually in pairs, on stalks 4-7 mm long, often curved donwards. Flowers winter to early spring.

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 photo:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10205 (accessed 5 January 2021)

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