''Hemiphora lanata'' is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the mint

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 ...

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle, or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil (herb), ba ...

and is endemic to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

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 sprawling shrub with its branches and leaves densely covered with white, woolly hairs and with deep pink or dark red, curved, tube-shaped flowers with spreading petal lobes on the end. It is similar to ''

Hemiphora exserta ''Hemiphora exserta'' is a flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a sprawling shrub with its branches densely covered with white, woolly hairs. Its leaves are rough and wrinkled ...

'' except for its cottony leaf-covering and its longer

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 ...

Description

''Hemiphora lanata'' is a sprawling shrub which grows to a height of with its branches covered with woolly hairs but which become

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, ...

with age. The leaves are linear to narrow lance-shaped, long, wide, with their edges strongly curved downwards and both surface densely covered with woolly hairs. The similar ''H. exserta'' has leaves that are rough and warty on the upper surface and have short soft hairs on the lower surface of young leaves. The flowers are arranged singly or in groups of up to three on woolly stalks long, in upper leaf

axil A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

s. There are

bract 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 lo ...

s long at the base of the flowers and which are glabrous on the inner surface and densely woolly outside, and shorter, glabrous

bracteoles 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 ...

. The five

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 are long, and joined at their base to form a short tube at their bases. The sepals are scaly on the outside, linear to lance-shaped and remain attached to the plant after the

petal Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...

s have fallen. The petals are deep pink to dark red, long and joined to form a downward-curving tube, long and wide at the top end. The petal tube has soft hairs on the outside but glabrous inside except for a densely hairy ring around the

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

. The five petal lobes form two "lips", the upper lip with two short lobes and the lower with three. The lower central lobe is almost twice as large as the other four, elliptic to almost circular in shape, long and wide while the others are more or less egg-shaped. The four stamens extend beyond the end of the petal tube with the lower pair longer than the upper pair. (''H. exserta'' has stamens that are about the same length as the petal tube.) Flowering occurs from June to November and the fruit is almost spherical, hairy and in diameter.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1979 by Ahmad Abid Munir who gave it the name ''Pityrodia exserta'' var. ''lanata''. The description was published in ''

Adelaide Botanic Garden The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospit ...

''. In 2011,

Barry Conn Barry John Conn (Barry Conn, born 1948), is an Australian botanist. He was awarded a Ph.D. from Adelaide University in 1982 for work on ''Prostanthera''. Career Conn's first appointment as a botanist was with the Lae Herbarium in 1974. He ...

, Murray Henwood and Nicola Streiber raised the variety to species status and transferred four species, including this one, from the genus ''

Pityrodia ''Pityrodia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae and is endemic to Australia, most species occurring in Western Australia, a few in the Northern Territory and one in Queensland. Plants in this genus are shrubs with fi ...

'' into ''Hemiphora''. 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 ...

(''lanata'') is a

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 ...

word meaning "woolly".

Distribution and habitat

''Hemiphora lanata'' mainly occurs between Ravensthorpe, Hyden and

Norseman The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a large-scale expansion in all directions, giving ris ...

in the Coolgardie and Mallee biogeographic regions where it grows in sandy or salty clay on plains. It generally grows in more inland areas than ''H. exserta'', although the two species sometimes grow near each other

Conservation

''Hemiphora lanata'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

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

External links

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image of ''Hemiphora exserta'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q28428519 exserta Plants described in 1979 Flora of Western Australia