''Pimelea flava'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Thymelaeaceae The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants composed of 50 genera (listed below) and 898 species.Zachary S. Rogers (2009 onwards)A World Checklist of Thymelaeaceae (version 1) Missouri Botanical Garden Website, St. Louis. It ...

and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with narrowly elliptic to egg-shaped leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and compact clusters of 9 or more flowers with 2 or 4 elliptic to circular

involucral bracts 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, ...

at the base. The flowers and bracts are white or yellow, depending on subspecies.

Description

''Pimelea flava'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy young stems. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, often crowded, narrowly elliptic to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base or almost circular, long, wide on a short petiole and

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") 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 o ...

. The flowers are arranged in compact clusters of 9 to many on the ends of branches on a

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long, with 2 to 4 leaf-like, elliptic, leaf-like involucral bracts long and wide. Each flower is either male or female, hairy, yellow or white, depending on subspecies. The floral tube is 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 The term ''sepalum'' was coined ...

s long and the

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s shorter than the sepals. Flowering mainly occurs from August to December.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his ''

Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae ''Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen'' (Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land) is a flora of Australia written by botanist Robert Brown and published in 1810. Often referred to as ''Prodromus Flora Nova ...

''. 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 ...

(''flava'') means "yellow". In 1847,

Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal (27 November 1794, Xanten – 12 October 1866, Halle) was a German botanist. He studied in Berlin, in 1819 becoming curator of the Royal Herbarium. He was a professor of botany and director of the Bot ...

described ''Pimelea dichotoma'' in the journal ''Linnaea'', but in 1983, Threlfall reduced it to ''Pimelea flava'' subsp. ''dichotoma'' in the journal ''

Brunonia ''Brunonia australis'', commonly known as the blue pincushion or native cornflower, is a perennial or annual Annual may refer to: * Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook **Literary annual * A ...

''. That name, and that of the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

: * ''Pimelea flava'' subsp. ''dichotoma'' (

Schltdl. Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal (27 November 1794, Xanten – 12 October 1866, Halle) was a German botanist. He studied in Berlin, in 1819 becoming curator of the Royal Herbarium. He was a professor of botany and director of the ...

) Threlfall, commonly known as ''diosma rice-flower'', usually grows to a height of has green involucral bracts and white flowers. * 'Pimelea flava'' R.Br. subsp. ''flava'' commonly known as ''yellow rice-flower'',usually grows to a height of has green to yellowish involucral bracts and yellow flowers.

Distribution and habitat

Diosma rice-flower (subsp. ''dichotoma'') grows in sand or heavier soil, often in mallee shrubland and occurs from the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named af ...

in South Australia to near

West Wyalong West Wyalong is the main town of the Bland Shire in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Located west of Sydney and above sea level, it is situated on the crossroads of the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane, and ...

in New South Wales and to the

Grampians The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian r ...

in Victoria. Yellow rice-flower (subsp. ''flava'') mainly grows in sandy soil and is found from the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strait ...

in South Australia to

East Gippsland East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres (14%) of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114. Australian Bureau of Statistics2006 Census Community Profile Series: East Gippsland (S ...

in Victoria and from the south-east to the north of Tasmania.

Conservation status

Yellow rice-flower is listed as "rare" in Tasmania under the Tasmanian Government ''

Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 The ''Threatened Species Protection Act 1995'' (TSP Act), is an act of the Parliament of Tasmania that provides the statute relating to conservation of flora and fauna. Its long title is An Act to provide for the protection and management of t ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q7194609, from2=Q55934927, from3=Q61717380 flava Flora of New South Wales Flora of Tasmania Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (Australia) Malvales of Australia Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)