''Cryptandra ciliata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

and is endemic to south-eastern Queensland. It is a shrub with clustered linear leaves and densely-hairy, white, tube-shaped flowers.

Description

''Cryptandra ciliata'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to , its branchlets hairy at first but soon glabrous. Its leaves are linear and clustered, mostly long and wide on a petiole long, with stipules long at the base. The upper surface of the leaves is glabrous and the edges are rolled under, usually obscuring most of the lower surface. The flowers are white and borne singly in leaf axils, sometimes forming clusters of up to 10 near the ends of branchlets, each flower with 7 to 10

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s at the base. The floral tube is long, the sepals long and densely covered with both simple and star-shaped hairs. The petals are long, forming a hood over the

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s long. Flowering occurs from May to August, and the fruit is brown and long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cryptandra ciliata'' was first formally described in 2004 by

Anthony Bean Anthony Russell Bean (born 1957) is an Australian botanist who works at the Queensland Herbarium and Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha. Since 1982, he has led the Eucalyptus Study Group of the Society for Growing Australian Plants. Care ...

in the journal '' Austrobaileya'' from specimens collected near Cracow b
Paul Irwin Forster
in 1990. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''ciliata'') means "fringed with fine hairs", referring to the bracts.

Distribution and habitat

This cryptandra grows in woodland on sandstone ridges and slopes from the

Barakula State Forest ''Barakula petersonorum'' is a species of beetles in the family Buprestidae Buprestidae is a family of beetles known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles because of their glossy iridescent colors. Larvae of this family are known ...

to near

Theodore Theodore may refer to: Places * Theodore, Alabama, United States * Theodore, Australian Capital Territory * Theodore, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Banana, Australia * Theodore, Saskatchewan, Canada * Theodore Reservoir, a lake in Sask ...

in south-east Queensland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15538410 ciliata Rosales of Australia Flora of Queensland Plants described in 2004 Taxa named by Anthony Bean