''Homoranthus bruhlii'' is a plant in the family

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All ...

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 on the

Northern Tablelands The Northern Tablelands, also known as the New England Tableland, is a plateau and a region of the Great Dividing Range in northern New South Wales, Australia. It includes the New England Range, the narrow highlands area of the New England regio ...

of New South Wales. It is an upright shrub with

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, ...

, pale green, linear leaves and with groups of three or four pale yellowish green flowers in 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. It is only known from a single population near

Tenterfield Tenterfield is a regional town in New South Wales, Australia, situated at the junction of the New England and Bruxner highways, along the Northern Tablelands, within the New England, New South Wales, New England region. At the , Tenterfield ha ...

Description

The five petalled flowers are held erect in leaf axils and have been recorded in October and November, with fruits forming shortly afterwards.

Taxonomy and naming

''Homoranthus bruhlii'' was first formally described in 2011 by Lachlan Copeland,

Lyndley Craven Lyndley Alan Craven (3 September 1945 – 11 July 2014) was a botanist who became the Principal Research Scientist of the Australian National Herbarium. Lyndley ("Lyn") Craven worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organ ...

and Jeremy Bruhl from a specimen collected on private property near Tenterfield in 2002. 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 b ...

''. 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 ...

(''bruhlii'') honours Jeremy Bruhl, Professor of Botany at the

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 26,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 6,000 students See also * New England Coll ...

Distribution and habitat

This homoranthus grows in skeletal, sandy soil among crevices of granite outcrops.

Conservation status

''Homoranthus bruhlii'' is currently known form a single population of ~20 plants over an area <1ha (2.47 acres). Threatened by an inappropriate fire regime, grazing by feral goats and critically low numbers. A ROTAP conservation code of 2E is recommended following criteria of Briggs and Leigh (1996) ''H. bruhlii'' satisfies the criteria of the IUCN (2010) to be considered 'Critically Endangered.

References

External links

The Australasian Virtual Herbarium – Occurrence data for ''Homoranthus bruhlii''
{{Taxonbar, from= Q56280680 bruhlii Flora of New South Wales Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 2011