Phebalium longifolium

Phebalium longifolium is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 3 m (9.8 ft). It is more or less covered with silvery to rust-coloured scales except for the upper surface of the leaves and the front of the petals. The leaves are narrow elliptical to narrow lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 15–80 mm (0.59–3.15 in) long and 2.5–10 mm (0.098–0.394 in) wide on a petiole 1.7–3 mm (0.067–0.118 in) long. The leaves are more or less glabrous and glossy green on the upper surface, densely covered with rust-coloured scales on the lower surface where there is a prominent mid-vein. The flowers are cream-coloured and arranged in small groups in umbels, each flower on a pedicel 5–12 mm (0.20–0.47 in) long. The calyx is top-shaped, 0.7–1.4 mm (0.028–0.055 in) long, 2.2–3 mm (0.087–0.118 in) wide and covered with warty glands and scales on the outside. The petals are elliptical, about 3 mm (0.12 in) long and densely covered with scales on the back. Flowering occurs from June to September.[2][3]

Phebalium longifolium was first formally described in 1959 by Stanley Thatcher Blake in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland from specimens he collected near Wallaman Falls in 1951.[4] In 1970, Paul G. Wilson reduced P. longifolium to P. squamulosum subsp. longifolium,[5][6] but in 2003, Paul Irwin Forster reinstated P. longifolium in the journal Austrobaileya and the name is accepted by the Australian Plant Census.[1][3][7]

This shrub grows on the edge of rainforest between the Herberton Range to the Paluma Range in tropical north Queensland.[2][3]

This phebalium is classified as "least concern" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.[8]