''Diocirea ternata'' 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 Balladonia 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 a restricted distribution but which often occurs in large numbers, forming a dense ground cover. 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 unusual leaf arrangement.

Description

''Diocirea ternata'' 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 have many raised resin glands and the leaves are arranged in rings of three around the stems. The leaves are mostly long, about wide, egg-shaped tapering to a point 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 with hairs on their edges. The petals are white, sometimes pale violet at first, and are joined to form a tube long with lobes which are about long. The lobes are spotted purple near the centre of the flower and 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 lower 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 a flattened oval shape, with a crusty brown covering.

Taxonomy and naming

''Diocirea ternata'' 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 west of Balladonia. 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 "

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''ternata'', in threes; referring to the whorled leaves".

Distribution and habitat

''Diocirea ternata'' has a restricted distribution in a small area near Balladonia 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 ...

. Although the distribution is limited, in some places there is an almost continuous ground cover with thousands of individual plants.

Conservation

''Diocirea ternata'' has been classified as "not threatened" 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 ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15593749 ternata Lamiales of Australia Plants described in 2007 Endemic flora of Western Australia