Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Richea continentis
Common name
Candle heath
Family
Ericaceae
Where found
Montane to alpine heath and grassland, near streams, and in and around swamps and Spagnum bogs. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, and the western edge of the ACT.
Notes
Shrub to 1 m high, branches sometimes sprawling, often freely rooting and creeping extensively through sphagnum bogs. Leaves with sharp points. Individual flower clusters initially covered by a broad brown bract with a rigid sharp tips that may be hooked. Flowers swollen and fleshy. Branches with persistent old leaves at the base, older branches without persistent leaf scars. Leaves crowded, overlapping each other, 1–4 cm long, 2–7 mm wide, bases sheathing, margins entire, sometimes with small teeth. Flowers greenish or creamy-white, 4–8 mm long, 4–5 mm in diameter, oval, with a tube and 5 lobes, the lobes not separating. Flowers in a spike-like cluster, at first short with the flowers enclosed in brown bracts, later elongating to 50–300 mm on a reddish stalk, the bracts falling. Flowering: December–February.
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=Richea~continentis (accessed 5 February, 2021)
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