''Pimelea pygmaea'' 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 Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

to Tasmania. It is prostrate, cushion-like undershrub with narrowly oblong to elliptic leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and white flowers arranged singly on the ends of the many branches.

Description

''Pimelea pygmaea'' is a prostrate, cushion-like undershrub that typically grows to a height of and has many branches and hairy young stems. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, narrowly oblong to elliptic, long, wide and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

. The flowers are white, female or

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, wh ...

and arranged singly on the ends of branches on a hairy pedicel. Bisexual flowers have a floral tube long and

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 up to long, and female flowers have a floral tube long and sepals long. Flowering occurs from September to December.

Taxonomy

''Pimelea pygmaea'' was first formally described in 1854 by

Carl Meissner Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner (1 November 1800 – 2 May 1874) was a Swiss botanist. Biography Born in Bern, Switzerland on 1 November 1800, he was christened Meisner but later changed the spelling of his name to Meissner. For most of his ...

in the journal ''

Linnaea ''Linnaea'' is a plant genus in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae. Until 2013, the genus included a single species, ''Linnaea borealis''. In 2013, on the basis of molecular phylogenetic evidence, the genus was expanded to include species f ...

'', from an unpublished description by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vic ...

and Charles Stuart. 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 ...

(''pygmaea'') means "dwarf".

Distribution and habitat

This pimelea grows in alpine and subalpine moorland at altitudes above on the

Central Plateau Conservation Area Central Plateau Conservation Area is an animal and plant conservation area in Tasmania, Australia. It is adjacent to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. The Central Plateau of Tasmania is the largest area of high ground in Tasmania. It is bou ...

in Tasmania.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17582288 pygmaea Malvales of Australia Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 1854 Taxa named by Carl Meissner