Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Hibbertia hermanniifolia
Common name
A Guinea Flower
Family
Dilleniaceae
Where found
subsp. hermaniifolia: Forest and woodland on sandy soils or rocky slopes. Bents Basin on the Nepean River, west of Sydney.
It is unclear to which subspecies plants from other parts of the Sydney area and south to west of Wollongong belong.
subsp. recondita: Forest, shrubland, and rocky areas. Ranges and eastern tablelands south from Tantangalo State Forest and the southernmost part of Wadbilliga National Park.
Notes
Shrub to 3 m high. Stems bluntly ridged to flanged below the leaf bases, hairy to with stalked stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.33–3.02 cm long, 1.8−10.2 mm wide, flat to more or less folded lengthwise or grooved along the central vein, surfaces hairy to sparsely hairy with simple and stalked stellate hairs, the narrow central vein on the ower surface rarely raised above the rolled down margins, tips usually more or less squared off and curved down, lower surface, if visible, a different colour from the upper surface. Juvenile leaves triangular, with three teeth at the tips. Flowers with 5 yellow petals each 6.8–9.4 mm long. Stamens 9−24 (plus a few stamens not producing pollen), surrounding the carpels. Carpels 2, hairy. Flowers single at the bases of the leaves or at the tops of the stems, on stalks 2-17.7 mm long. Flowering: winter to summer.
subsp. hermaniifolia: Stamens (including stamens not producing pollen) 18–28. Flower stalks 9.4–17.7 mm long.
subsp. recondita: Stamens (including stamens not producing pollen) up to 15. Flower stalks 2–9 mm long.
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Hibbertia~hermanniifolia (accessed 19 January, 2021)
Description partly based on: Toelken, H.R. (2012), Notes on Hibbertia (Dilleniaceae) 7. H. hermanniifolia group (subgen. Hemistemma from mainly temperate eastern Australia). Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 25: 61-64
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