Cryptandra amara

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  >  Fabids > Rosales > Rhamnaceae > Cryptandra amara

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:                Bitter Cryptandra

• Also,  pretty pearlflower

Conservation status:  Endangered

• Listed as "endangered" under the Tasmanian Government Threatened Species Protection Act 1995

Etymology:   

•  The specific epithet (amara) means "bitter"

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are white, tube-shaped or bell-shaped, and arranged at the ends of branchlets, sometimes singly or in small groups, sometimes in spike-like clusters of many flowers

• The bracts are brown, broadly elliptic and up to 1.5 mm long

• The sepals are about the same length as the floral tube, the petals about 0.5 mm long

• Flowering mainly occurs from August to October

Fruit:                         

• The fruit of Cryptandra amara is a capsule that divides into single-seeded fruitlets

• The seeds are reddish-brown in colour, with a short aril

Leaves:         

• The leaves are more or less linear to oblong or egg-shaped, sometimes with the narrower end towards the base

• 2–5 mm long and 1–2 mm wide 

• Often clustered at the ends of branchlets

Stem & branches: 

• It is often extensively branched, the branchlets tending to be rigid, sometimes spiny, and covered in fine, star-shaped hairs

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It is a densely-branched shrub

• Typically grows to a height of up to 1 m

Habitat:   

• Cryptandra amara grows on shallow, often rocky soils, in grassland, shrubland, woodland and heathy forest 

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to eastern Australia

• It is found in south-east Queensland, through most of NSW, in central, northern and eastern Victoria and southern South Australia

• In Tasmania it mainly occurs in the Southern Midlands with scattered population in other places

Additional notes:    

• Taxonomy

  • Cryptandra amara was first formally described in 1808 by James Edward Smith in The Cyclopaedia from specimens collected by "Dr. White"

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptandra_amara (2023)