Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Epacris sparsa
Common name
Sparse heath
Family
Ericaceae
Where found
Rainforest, wet forest, and shrubland, at the base of cliffs or rock faces, on rock ledges or among rocks in the flood zone near the lower Grose River. Blue Mountains and the western parts of the Sydney area.
Notes
Shrub to 0.9 m high. Older stems with prominent, broad, cup-shaped leaf scars, reddish-brown, brittle. Branchlets hairy with fine hairs. Leaves scattered or overlapping, 1.1–1.7 cm long, 3–4 mm wide, tips pointed, margins slightly thickened; blades flat and more or less thin. Flowers cream to greenish-white, 4–5 mm in diameter, tubular, the tube 14.8–19.2 mm long, with 5 spreading lobes. No hairs on the inside of the flowers. Flowers near the ends of the branches, hanging down. Flowering: April-June.
Family was Epacridaceae.
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: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10274 (accessed 5 January 2021)
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Epacris~sparsa (accessed 5 January 2021)
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