''Leucopogon distans'' is a flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to the south-west of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of . The leaves are heart-shaped to egg-shaped or lance-shaped, long with the edges rolled under. The flowers are arranged in spikes on the ends of branches or in upper leaf axils, the flowers well-spaced from each other, with small

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s and broad bracteoles at the base. 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 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are about long, the petal tube about the same length as the sepals, the lobes about twice as long. Flowering occurs from July to February. ''Leucopogon distans'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his '' Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''distans'') means "distant", referring to the well-spaced flowers. This leucopogon grows on sandy and gravelly soils in swamps, sandplains and hills in the

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

Jarrah Forest Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...

and

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

References

distans Ericales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773) {{Australia-asterid-stub