''Pimelea neoanglica'', commonly known as poison pimelea or scanty riceflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Thymelaeaceae The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family (biology), family of flowering plants composed of 50 genera (listed below) and 898 species.Zachary S. Rogers (2009 onwards)A World Checklist of Thymelaeaceae (version 1) Missouri Botanical Garden Webs ...

and is endemic to inland areas of eastern Australia. It is an erect,

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

shrub with narrowly elliptic leaves and heads of greenish-yellow flowers.

Description

''Pimelea neoanglica'' is an erect, dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has slender,

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

stems. Its leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, narrowly elliptic, mostly long and wide on a short

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branches in compact clusters of 3 to 24, usually with 2 narrowly egg-shaped or narrowly elliptic, green

involucral bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

long at the base. The flowers are greenish-yellow, the male flowers about long and the female flowers about long. Flowering occurs in most months, but with a peak in September and October.

Taxonomy

''Pimelea neoanglica'' was first formally described in 1983 by S. Threlfall in the journal '' Brunonia'' from specimens collected near

Warialda Warialda is a town in the North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, in Gwydir Shire. It is situated on the banks of Warialda Creek. At the , Warialda had a population of 1,120. Transport The Gwydir Highway runs through town and ...

Edwin Cheel Edwin Cheel (14 February 1872 – 19 September 1951) was an Australian botanist and collector. Before being appointed as a staff member of Centennial Park in 1897 he was a gardener in New South Wales and Queensland. Later he transferred to the R ...

in 1929.

Distribution and habitat

Poison pimelea mostly grows in clay soils on the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills. It runs roughl ...

and nearby ranges of eastern Australia from

Carnarvon Station Reserve Carnarvon Station Reserve is a 59,000–hectare nature reserve in the Great Dividing Range of south-eastern Central Queensland, Australia. It is adjacent to Carnarvon National Park, and includes most of the Channin Creek valley. It is 600 km we ...

in Queensland to

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

in New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17582306 neoanglica Malvales of Australia Dioecious plants Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1983