Hibbertia vestita

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids > Dilleniales > Dilleniaceae >  Hibbertia  vestita 

Other links:    

Plant  information

Common name:               Hairy Guinea-flower 

Conservation status:   . . .

Etymology:   

• The name Hibbertia honours George Hibbert, a patron of botany and slave trader

• The specific epithet (vestita) means "covered"

Flowers:         

• The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets and are sessile or on a peduncle up to 4 mm long, with lance-shaped, leaf-like bracts 2.5–4.0 mm long at the base

• The five sepals are joined at the base, the three outer sepal lobes 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) long and 3.0–4.5 mm (0.12–0.18 in) wide, and the inner lobes slightly shorter

• The five petals are broadly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, yellow, up to 12.5 mm (0.49 in) long with two lobes on the end

• There are 22 to 43 stamens and many staminodes arranged around three hairy carpels, each carpel with four to six ovules

• Flowering occurs in most months

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• Foliage covered with simple hairs

• The leaves sometimes becoming glabrous as they age

• The leaves are linear to more or less oblong or lance-shaped, 3.5–8 mm (0.14–0.31 in) long and 0.6–2.0 mm (0.024–0.079 in) wide on a petiole 0.2–0.6 mm (0.0079–0.0236 in) long

Stem & branches:    

• A prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 30 cm

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It is a small shrub with foliage covered with simple hairs, and usually has linear leaves, and yellow flowers with 22 to 43 stamens and many staminodes arranged around three hairy carpels.

Habitat:   

• Grows in heath in near-coastal area and in forest in areas further inland in south-east Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales

• Variety thymifolia is restricted to exposed headlands in the same area

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to eastern Australia

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Hibbertia vestita was first formally described in 1863 by George Bentham from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham, Bentham's description published in Flora Australiensis

  • Bentham also described variety thymifolia in the same edition of Flora Australiensis, and its name and that of the autonym are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

    • Hibbertia vestita var. thymifolia Benth.[7] has shorter leaves than those of the autonym, and the end often curves downwards

    • Hibbertia vestita Benth

Sources of information:

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