''Kunzea juniperoides'' 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 myrtle

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 ...

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 of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. It is a small shrub with narrow leaves and small groups of white flowers near the end of the longer branches. It is distinguished from similar kunzeas by the large number of scale-like perules and

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 surrounding the groups of flowers.

Description

''Kunzea juniperoides'' is a shrub which grows to a height of with its branches hairy when young. The leaves are linear in shape, long and less than wide with a petiole less than long. The flowers are arranged in groups of mostly three to eight near the ends of the branches. There are large numbers of broadly egg-shaped

s long and wide and smaller paired bracteoles at the base of the flowers. The floral cup is hairy and about long. 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 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

lobes are egg-shaped to triangular, about long and

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, ...

. 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 are white, egg-shaped to almost round and about long. There are about 30-35

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 are about long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Kunzea juniperoides'' was first formally described in 2016 by Hellmut R. Toelken and the description was published in '' Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Garden''. 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 ...

(''juniperoides'') refers to the similarity of the leaves of this species to those of miniature forms of ''

Juniperus communis ''Juniperus communis'', the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae. An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the coo ...

''. (The

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

''-oides'' means "likeness" in

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 ...

.) There are two subspecies: * ''Kunzea juniperoides'' subsp. ''juniperoides'' which has leaves which are mostly long and grows in low heath near Braidwood; * ''Kunzea juniperoides'' subsp. ''pervervosa'' which has leaves which are mostly long and grows in woodland on the Pigeon House Range.

Distribution and habitat

This kunzea grows in heath and woodland on the South Coast and nearby tablelands of New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q65941624 juniperoides Flora of New South Wales Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 2016 Endemic flora of Australia Taxa named by Hellmut R. Toelken