''Diocirea microphylla'' is a plant in the figwort

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

(

Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...

), and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to a small area near Coolgardie in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is a low shrub with thin branches and minute leaves pressed against the stems. It is readily distinguished from the other three species in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

by its tiny leaves.

Description

''Diocirea microphylla'' is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

with many stems and which sometimes grows to a height of and spreads to a width of . Its branches are less than about in diameter and unlike others in the genus, lack raised glands. The leaves are mostly long, about wide, egg-shaped, pressed against the stem and sticky due to the presence of resin. The flowers are borne singly in leaf axils and lack a stalk. There are 5 egg-shaped, pointed green

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 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s joined together at their base. The petals are white or pale violet joined to form a tube long with lobes which are about the same length and are spotted purple near their bases. The tube is mostly

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, ...

except for a few hairs on the bottom lobe. There are 4

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s which extend slightly beyond the petal tube. The fruit that follows flowering is cone-shaped, dark brown, wrinkled and

and about .

Taxonomy and naming

''Diocirea microphylla'' was first formally described by taxonomist Bob Chinnock in ''Eremophila and allied genera: a monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae'' in 2007 from a specimen collected near Coolgardie. Chinnock states that the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

is derived from "

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''microphylla'', small leaves". In ancient Greek, the feminine adjective ''mikrophyllos'' (μικρόφυλλος) means "''with'' small leaves",Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie.''Oxford: Clarendon Press. the same meaning that is ascribed to the feminine adjective ''microphylla'' in botanical Latin.Backer, C.A. (1936). ''Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten'' (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs).

Distribution and habitat

''Diocirea microphylla'' occurs in a small area north of Coolgardie in the Coolgardie biogeographic region where it grows in

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

. Only a few populations are known but in several of these it forms an almost continuous ground cover with thousands of individual plants.

Conservation

''Diocirea microphylla'' has been classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15593603 microphylla Lamiales of Australia Plants described in 2007 Endemic flora of Western Australia