Philotheca linearis

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms  > Eudicots > Rosids > Malvids > Sapindales > Rutaceae > Philotheca linearis  

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:               Rock Wallaby Shrub 

or narrow-leaf wax-flower

Conservation status:   

• In Western Australia, P. linearis is classified as "Priority One" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is known from only one or a few locations which are potentially at risk

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are borne singly in leaf axils, each flower on a pedicel 4–6 mm long

• There are five broadly egg-shaped sepals about 1 mm long and five elliptical white petals 4–6 mm long

• The ten stamens are free from each other and hairy

• Flowering mainly occurs in spring and the fruit is about 5 mm long and prominently beaked

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• The leaves are also glandular-warty, club-shaped to cylindrical

• 8–20 mm long and channelled on the upper surface

Stem & branches: 

•  It grows to a height of 0.5–2 m with warty glands on the branchlets

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It is a shrub with glandular-warty branchlets and leaves, club-shaped to cylindrical leaves and white flowers arranged singly in leaf axils

Habitat:   

• On and around rock outcrops

Distribution:                  

• It is endemic to an inland areas of southern Australia

• From the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia and east to the Everard, Gawler and Flinders Ranges in South Australia and the Cobar – Bourke – Broken Hill area of NSW

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • This philotheca was first formally described in 1837 by Stephan Endlicher from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham who gave it the name Eriostemon linearis

  • Endlicher published the description in the Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel

  • The type specimens were collected by Cunningham on the "Barren Ranges on the Lachlan River" in June 1817

  • In 1998, Wilson changed the name to Philotheca linearis in the journal Nuysia

Sources of information:

• (2023)