Pimelea venosa
Bolivia Hill Rice-flower
Bolivia Hill Rice-flower
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids > Malvids > Malvales > Thymelaeaceae > Pimelea venosa
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Overview:
Pimelea venosa, commonly known as Bolivia Hill rice-flower, is a flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to a restricted area of NSW
It is an erect shrub with densely long-hairy stems and leaves, elliptic to lance-shaped leaves and small groups of white flowers
Common name: Bolivia Hill Rice-flower
Conservation status: Endangered
This rice-flower is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
The main threats to the species include habitat disturbance, browsing by feral goats, inappropriate fire regimes and its restricted distribution
Etymology:
Pimelea is from the Ancient Greek word pimele, meaning "fat or "lard", possibly referring to the oily seeds or fleshy cotyledons
Flowers
Bisexual, white, arranged in groups of three to six with between two and six small, leaf-like bracts at the base
Fruit:
The fruit is oval, green and about 4 mm long
Leaves:
The leaves are elliptic to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 10–15 mm long and 4–6 mm wide
They are densely covered with long, soft, whitish hairs
Stem & branches:
Branches are densely covered with long, soft, whitish hairs
Roots:
Habit:
An erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 1.5 m
Habitat:
Distribution:
Bolivia Hill rice-flower is only known from near Bolivia on the Northern Tablelands of NSW but was previously recorded near Tenterfield and 100 km east of this region
Surveys in 1999 and after a bushfire in 2012 found no plants in known sites but after a low intensity fire in late 2019, about 200 seedlings were found
Additional notes:
Taxonomy and naming
Pimelea venosa was first formally described in 1983 by S. Threlfall in the journal Brunonia, from a specimen collected by Ernst Betche near Bolivia in 1886
Sources of information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimelea_venosa (July 2024)