''Spyridium nitidum'', commonly known as shining spyridium, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is an erect, spindly shrub with narrowly elliptic or narrowly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and heads of hairy, woolly white flowers.

Description

''Spyridium nitidum'' is an erect, spindly shrub that typically grows to a height of up to about , its young stems silky-hairy. Its leaves are narrowly elliptic or narrowly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide and

petiolate Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, a ...

. Both sides of the leaves are covered with silky hairs, and there are lance-shaped stipules long at the base. The flowers are white about in diameter, and borne in clusters in diameter on the ends of branchlets with a single creamy-white leaf and several sticky brown

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 at the base. The floral tube is long, the sepals about long. Flowering mainly occurs from July to October and the fruit is about long.

Taxonomy

''Spyridium nitidum'' was first formally described in 1957 by Norman Arthur Wakefield in ''

The Victorian Naturalist ''The Victorian Naturalist'' is a bimonthly scientific journal covering natural history, especially of Australia. It is published by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria and is received as part of the membership subscription of that club. From ...

''. 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 ...

(''nitidum'') means "shining".

Distribution

Shining spyridium grows in south-eastern South Australia, including on the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island, and in the

Big Desert Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * '' Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...

area of Victoria, near the border with South Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from= Q17243564 nitidum Rosales of Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Plants described in 1957 Taxa named by Norman Arthur Wakefield