Kunzea recurva

Kunzea recurva is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is an uncommon shrub with small leaves and groups of pink or purplish flowers on the ends of the branches.

Kunzea recurva
Kunzea recurva growing in the Hassell National Park
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Myrtales
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Kunzea
Species:
K. recurva
Binomial name
Kunzea recurva
Synonyms[1]

Description

Kunzea recurva is an erect, highly branched shrub which grows to a height of 0.3 to 2 metres (1 to 7 ft) with hairy young branches. The base of the leaves is pressed against the stem but the tips spread outwards. They are mostly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, mostly 2–2.5 mm (0.08–0.1 in) long and 1.5–3 mm (0.06–0.1 in) wide on a short stalk. The flowers are pink to reddish purple and are borne in more or less spherical groups about 15 mm (0.6 in) across on the ends of the branches. The petals lobes are egg-shaped to spatula-shaped about 2 mm (0.08 in) in diameter and there are mostly 20 to 35 stamens 3.5–5 mm (0.1–0.2 in) long in each flower. Flowering occurs between August and December but mostly between September and November and the fruit that follows is an urn-shaped capsule with the sepal lobes remaining.[2][3][4]

Taxonomy and naming

Kunzea recurva was first formally described by the botanist Johannes Conrad Schauer and published in 1844 in Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's work Plantae Preissianae.[5][6] The specific epithet (recurva) is derived from the Latin word, curvus meaning "bent".[7]

Distribution and habitat

Kunzea recurva is an uncommon species, usually found in wet depressions or on rocky slopes in the South West and Great Southern regions of Western Australia, where it grows in a variety of soil types.[3][4]

References
  1. "Kunzea recurva". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  2. Toelken, Helmut R. (1996). "A revision of the genus Kunzea (Murtaceae) 1. The Western Australian section Zeanul" (PDF). Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Garden. 17: 55–59. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  3. "Kunzea recurva". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  4. Marshall, Brian; Tullis, Brian (photography); Wilson, Margaret (illustrations) (1990). Wildflowers of the West Coast Hills Region : the plants and flowers of the Darling Scarp and Range in the Kalamunda Shire, the backdrop to Perth, Western Australia (revised 2002 ed.). Western Australia: Quality Publishing Australia. p. 22. ISBN 1875737243.
  5. "Kunzea recurva". APNI. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  6. Schauer, Johnaaes Conrad (1844). Plantae Preissianae (Volume 1). Hamburg. p. 125. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  7. Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 139.
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