Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans
E. glabra albicans growing near Kalbarri
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Scrophulariaceae
Genus:	Eremophila
Species:	E. glabra
Subspecies:	E. g. subsp. albicans
Trinomial name
Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans (Bartl.) Chinnock

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is similar to other shrubs in the species Eremophila glabra but it distinguished from them by its usually grey, felty leaves, dull yellow, orange or red flowers with hairy sepals, growing in sandy soils on dunes and limestone outcrops between Bunbury and Shark Bay.

Description

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans is a low, spreading, sometimes straggly shrub up to 0.4 metres (1 ft) high, sometimes spreading to 2 metres (7 ft) wide. The stems are usually scurfy or hairy and the leaves are grey due to a covering of fine hairs. The leaves are elliptic to lance-shaped, 15–30 millimetres (0.6–1 in) long and 4–7 millimetres (0.2–0.3 in) wide.^[1][2][3]

The flowers are dull yellow, orange or red and occur singly in the leaf axils on flower stalks 1.5–5 millimetres (0.06–0.2 in) long. There are 5 partly overlapping sepals which are narrow triangular to lance-shaped and 5 petals forming a tube except at the ends where the lowest lobe is thinner that the rest and is turned back below the flower. Flowering occurs from May to January and is followed by fruit which are oval-shaped and 5–6 millimetres (0.2–0.2 in) long.^[1][2]

Taxonomy and naming

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans was first described in 1845 by

Eremophila glabra subsp. albicans occurs in coastal areas between Bunbury and Shark Bay where it grows in sandy soil on sand dunes and limestone outcrops.[1]^[2][7]

References