Kunzea pulchella

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Granite Kunzea

Conservation status: Not Threatened

• Granite kunzea is classified as "not threatened" by the Department of Parks and Wildlife of Western Australia

Etymology:   

• Kunzea, after Dr Gustav Kunze (1793-1851), professor of medicine and botany, Leipzig

• The specific epithet (pulchella) is the diminutive of the Latin word pulcher meaning "pretty", hence "beautiful little"

Flowers

• The flowers are arranged in loose groups of 6 to 14, each flower on a stalk 2.5–4.5 mm long on the ends of branches which often continue to grow during the flowering period

• There are leaf-like, egg-shaped bracts 4.5–6 mm long and smaller bracteoles at the base of the flower and which fall off as the flower develops

• The hypanthium is 4–5 mm long and densely hairy on the outside

• There are five hairy, pointed, triangular sepals 2–3.5 mm long, which remain on the maturing fruit

• The five petals are deep red, almost round and 3.5–5 mm long

• There are more than 70 bright red stamens 10–17 mm long around each flower, the stamens three or four times as long as the petals

• Some forms of the plant have white to pale cream-coloured flowers

• Flowering occurs from June to November 

• The colour of the flowers is white in the east of the range, and pink forms occur at a north–south transition zone that includes Elachbutting, Frog Rock and Duladjin Rock

• The white form may encourage pollination by nocturnal moths, supplementing the less reliable visits by the honeyeaters in the more arid region

Fruit:                            

• A broad, urn-shaped capsule, 4–5 mm long with the erect sepals attached

Leaves:         

• The leaves are arranged alternately on a petiole up to 1 mm long and have a leaf blade that is usually 5–14 mm long, 2.5–5.5 mm wide 

• They have egg-shaped to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base

• Both sides of the leaves are silky-hairy

Stem & branches: 

• More or less hairy

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A spreading shrub which usually grows to a height of between 0.6 and 3 m, often with few side-branches, the branches more or less hairy

Habitat:   

• Sandy or clay soils, often near or over granite in open scrub

• The preferred site is a narrow fissure in granite, to which it will be tenaciously anchored

• The species may assume a bonsai appearance as the aging sole resident of a minor flaw on the face of a granite outcrop

Distribution:                  

• At the granite outcrops of Western Australia, and amongst the most common shrubs of those featured in the more arid wheatbelt and goldfields areas of the southwest region

• It grows over a widespread area in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Jarrah Forest, Mallee, Murchison and Yalgoo biogeographic regions

Additional notes:     

• Distinguishing features

  • The features of this species that distinguish it from others in the Myrtaceae are the red flowers, persistent sepals and deciduous fruit

  • The egg-shaped leaves and triangular sepals distinguish it from Kunzea baxteri which also has red flowers

• Taxonomy and naming

  • The species was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley, who gave it the name Salisia pulchella and published the description in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony

  • In 1966, Alex George revised the name to Kunzea pulchella and published the change in The Western Australian Naturalist

• Use in horticulture

  • This kunzea is best suited to a climate with dry summers and wet winters but can be grown in eastern Australian states if grown from cuttings on Kunzea ambigua rootstock

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunzea_pulchella (2024)