Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Pimelea curviflora

Flower cluster and leaves (var. acuta). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Namadgi National Park, ACT

Flowering stems (var. acuta). Photographer Don Wood, Namadgi National Park, ACT

Flowering stems (var. curviflora). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer  R Hotchkiss, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Flowering stems (var. gracilis). Photographer Don Wood, Carnarvon Station Bush Heritage Reserve via Augathella, Qld

Line drawing (subsp. sericea as Pimelea curviflora var. sericea). h. flowering branch; i. flower. M Moir, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Flowering stems (var. sericea). Photographer Don Wood, south of Moruya

Flowering stems (var. sericea). Photographer Don Wood, above Murrumbidgee River, ACT

Line drawing (subsp. gracilis as Pimelea curviflora var. gracilis). j. flowering branch; k. flower. M Moir, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

A Rice Flower

Family

Thymelaeaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, heath, shrubland, and grassy areas. Widespread.

var. acuta:  ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park. Occasionally elsewhere.

var. curviflora:  Sydney area and Wollongong.

var. divergens: Ranges and tablelands just north of the area covered by this key.

var. gracilis:  Widespread. Rarely coastal.

var. sericea:  Western Slopes, Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, ACT and tablelands. Occasional elsewhere.

var. subglabrata:  North of Kiama. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands,

Notes

Shrub to 1.5 m high. Stems hairy when young. Leaves alternating up the stems or opposite each other, 0.5–2.5 cm long, 0.5–8 mm wide, surfaces the same colour or different colours, hairy on both surfaces or almost hairless to hairless on the upper surface, lower surface bearing short, fine, slightly tangled, appressed to spreading, hairs. Flowers bisexual and female, yellow, greenish, or dark red, 5–10 mm long, tubular, the tube commonly curved, with 4 spreading lobes. 4–22 flowers in each head. Flowers Spring-Summer.

var. acuta:  Much-branched subshrub to 0.5 m high. Leaves 0.5–1.5 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, yellowish green, upper surface hairless, lower surface hairless or with scattered short spreading hairs, hairs often restricted to the margins and midvein. Flowers 9–10 mm long, yellow-greenish. Clusters 5–14-flowered.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

var. curviflora:  Much-branched subshrub or shrub, to 1.2 m high. Leaves 0.5–1 cm long, 2–4 mm wide. lower surface of leaves sparsely hairy with coarse appressed or loosely appressed hairs. Flowers red to yellow, 6–8 mm long. Clusters 4–12-flowered.

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=10629 (accessed 7 January 2021)

var. divergens:  Tufted subshrub to 0.5 m high. Stems and lower surface and margins of the leaves with long sparse spreading hairs. Leaves 0.5–2.2 cm long, 2–4 mm wide. Flowers greenish yellow, or often dark red, sparsely hairy with short hairs. Flowers 5–9 mm long. Clusters 7–22-flowered.

var. gracilis:  Shrub to 1.5 m high. Leaves 0.4–2 cm long, 1–6 mm wide, pale or dull green, upper surface hairless or sparsely hairy and lower surface with appressed or spreading hairs. Flowers greenish yellow, bisexual flowers 8–10 mm long, female flowers usually 6–7 mm long. Clusters 4–22-flowered, often slightly elongated.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

var. sericea:  Subshrub to 0.4 m high. Leaves scattered on elongated stems, 0.5–2 cm long, 1–7 mm wide, pale or dull green, upper surface hairless or sparsely hairy, lower surface with more or less appressed silky hairs. Flowers greenish yellow or red, 5–9 mm long. Clusters usually 4–20-flowered.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

var. subglabrata:  Subshrub to 0.3 m high. Leaves 0.5–1.1 cm long, about 2 mm wide, pale or dull green, hairless except for a few very short coarse appressed hairs,  lower surface with appressed or spreading hairs of variable thickness, length, and density. Flowers greenish yellow or red, 5–7 mm long. Clusters 6–16-flowered.  

PlantNET description of species and key to varieties:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Pimelea~curviflora  (accessed 7 January 2021)