''Acrothamnus hookeri'', commonly known as the mountain beardheath, is a flowering plant in the family

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

and grows in subalpine regions of southeastern Australia. It is a small upright shrub with oblong-shaped leaves and white flowers.

Description

''Acrothamnus hookeri'' is an upright, occasionally bushy shrub about high with branchlets that are rough. The leaves are oblong-shaped, long, wide, edges mostly smooth but finely toothed toward the apex, upper surface flat to curved outward, lower surface sometimes with a whitish covering and 3 middle more or less parallel veins, and a petiole long. The white flowers are borne in groups of 1-10 in spikes up to long, more or less crowded, at the end of branches or upper leaf nodes,

bracteole 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 o ...

s broadly oval-shaped, long and the

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined ...

s long. The male

corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name * Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown * ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...

tube is long, female tubes long, lobes about long and bearded on the inside. Flowering occurs from October to January and the fruit is a fleshy, pink

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part ( exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kerne ...

, red when ripe, smooth and long.

Taxonomy

''Acrothamnus hookeri'' was first formally described in 2005 by

Christopher John Quinn Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει ...

and the description was published in ''

Australian Systematic Botany ''Australian Systematic Botany'' is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published by CSIRO Publishing. It is devoted to publishing original research, and sometimes review articles, on topics related to systematic botany, such as bi ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

Mountain beardheath grows in

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

forest, in heath on wet rocky soils and woodland in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4676557 Epacridoideae Ericales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1854 Flora of Victoria (Australia)