Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Epacris microphylla
Common name
Coral heath, Coast coral heath
Family
Ericaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, heath, along streams, and swampy areas and bogs. Widespread, but rare on the Western Slopes. No coastal records beween south of Ulladulla and north of Merimbula.
Notes
Shrub to 1.8 m high. Leaves sharp pointed. Stems with inconspicuous leaf scars. Branchlets very hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.15–0.6 cm long, 1.5–4 mm wide, more or less broadly oval, usually concave in cross section, bases usually cordate and stem-clasping, margins more or less rough; blades more or less thick, usually concave. Flowers white, often pink-tipped in bud, 4–6 mm long, 1.5–4 mm wide, tubular, the tube bell-shaped, with 5 spreading lobes. No hairs on the inside of the flowers. Flowers forming a leafy spike down the stems. Flowering: Throughout the year but mainly July–November.
The low shrub less than 0.5 m high that occurs in alpine feldmark, treated as Epacris gunnii in Mark Ballantyne, Catherine M. Pickering, Keith L. McDougall and Genevieve T. Wright: Sustained impacts of a hiking trail on changing Windswept Feldmark vegetation in the Australian Alps Australian Journal of Botany, 2014, 62, 263–275, is now regarded as Epacris microphylla in the broad sense as described in Kosciuszko Alpine Flora. However, it is likely to be an as yet unnamed species. (pers. comm. from Genevieve Wright, April 2018)
Was Epacris microphylla var. microphylla.
Family was Epacridaceae.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Epacris~microphylla (accessed 12 January, 2021)
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