''Prostanthera serpyllifolia'', commonly known as small-leaved mint-bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

and is endemic to southern Australia. It is a small shrub with small egg-shaped leaves and bright pink to red or metallic bluish-green flowers.

Description

''Prostanthera serpyllifolia'' is a prostrate to erect shrub that typically grows to a height of less than with hairy white branches. The leaves are egg-shaped to broadly elliptic, long and wide and sessile or on a petiole up to long. The flowers are borne in leaf axils on a pedicel long with bracteoles usually long at the base of the sepals. The sepals are long and form a tube long with lobes long. The petals are bright pink to mid red, often white near the base, sometimes with a yellow tinge, and sometimes metallic bluish green, long forming a tube long. The lower middle lobe of the petal tube is long and wide, the side lobes long and wide. The upper lip of the petal tube is long and wide with a small central notch. Flowering occurs in April or from June to December.

Taxonomy

Small-leaved mint-bush was first formally described in 1810 by botanist Robert Brown, who gave it the name ''Cryphia serpyllifolia'', and published the description in '' Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen'', based on plant material collected from the southern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. In 1895

John Isaac Briquet John Isaac Briquet (13 March 1870 in Geneva – 26 October 1931 in Geneva) was a Swiss botanist, director of the ''Conservatoire Botanique'' at Geneva. He received his education in natural sciences at Geneva and Berlin,

changed the name to ''Prostanthera serpyllifolia''. In 1984, Barry Conn described two subspecies of ''P. serpyllifolia'' in the '' Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens'' and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: * ''Prostanthera serpyllifolia'' subsp. ''microphylla'' (R.Br.) B.J.Conn that has leaves mostly long and wide and sessile or on a very short petiole; * ''Prostanthera serpyllifolia'' (R.Br.) Briq. subsp. ''serpyllifolia'' that has leaves mostly long and wide on a petiole long.

Distribution and habitat

''Prostanthera serpyllifolia'' occurs in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia where it often grows in mallee communities, often on limestone or

calcrete Caliche () is a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate that binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt. It occurs worldwide, in aridisol and mollisol soil orders—generally in arid or semiarid regions, ...

. Subspecies ''microphylla'' occurs in New South Wales where it is found west from near West Wyalong. The same subspecies grows in the far north-west of Victoria, in the south east of South Australia, and along the southern part of Western Australia as far west as the southern Avon Wheatbelt. Subspecies ''serpyllifolia'' occurs on the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas and there is a single record from the southwest of Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15355244, from2=Q51058752, from3=Q51058737 serpyllifolia Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of Western Australia Lamiales of Australia Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)