Seringia hillii
Mountain Fire-Bush
Mountain Fire-Bush
Common name: Mountain Fire-Bush
Conservation status: Least concern
Is listed as of "least concern" in Queensland by the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science
Etymology:
The specific epithet (hillii) honours Walter Hill
Flowers
The flowers are arranged in a cyme with 2 to 9 flowers up to 20 mm wide, on a peduncle 5–15 mm long, each flower on a pedicel 5–15 mm long
The flowers are mauve, sometimes white or pink, with deeply divided sepals
There are no petals, the stamens alternate with the staminodes, and the filaments are yellow and twice as long as the anthers
Flowering occurs in most months with a peak in spring and summer
Fruit:
A spherical capsule 12–15 mm in diameter
Leaves:
The leaves are egg-shaped to linear or lance-shaped, 40–90 mm long and usually 4–8 mm wide
Petiole is up to 10 mm long with narrow, leaf-like stipules 2–8 mm long at the base
Stem & branches:
New growth covered with rust-coloured hairs
Roots:
Habit:
A single-stemmed shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–3 m and 1.0–1.5 m wide
Habitat:
Around cliffs and in rocky country
Distribution:
Endemic to eastern Australia
Near Stanthorpe, the Glasshouse Mountains and Mount Barney in south-east Queensland and on the coast and ranges north from Port Stephens in NSW
Additional notes:
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1863 by George Bentham who gave it the name Keraudrenia hillii in Flora Australiensis from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller
In 1882, Ferdinand von Mueller transferred the species to Seringia as S. hillii in his Systematic Census of Australian Plants
Sources of information: