Spyridium obcordatum
Creeping Dustymiller
Creeping Dustymiller
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Fabids > Rosids > Spyridium
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Common name: Creeping Dustymiller
Also, creeping spyridium
Conservation status: Vulnerable
This species of spyridium is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the Tasmanian Government Threatened Species Protection Act 1995
The main threats to the species include habitat disturbance, browsing and grazing, and residential activity
Etymology:
The specific epithet (obcordatum) means "heart-shaped, attached at the pointed end"
Flowers:
Heads of flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets, surrounded by brown bracts and petal-like leaves, the individual flowers white and about 3 mm wide
Flowering occurs from mid-September to October
Fruit:
Leaves:
The leaves are egg-shaped to heart-shaped with the narrower end towards the base
Mostly 4–10 mm long with the edges curved downwards
The upper surface of the leaves is more or less glabrous and the lower surface is covered with greyish or white hairs
Stem & branches:
Many twiggy, wiry branches up to 40 cm long
Roots:
x
Habit:
A prostrate shrub
Habitat:
Grows in open forest or woodland, mainly among serpentinite outcrops
Distribution:
Endemic to Tasmania
Mainly among serpentinite outcrops, near Beaconsfield and in near-coastal areas between Greens Beach and Hawley Beach in Tasmania
Additional notes:
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1855 by Joseph Dalton Hooker who gave it the name Cryptandra obcordata in The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. Discovery ships Erebus and Terror from specimens collected by Ronald Campbell Gunn
In 1970, Winifred Curtis changed the name to Spyridium obcordatum in The Victorian Naturalist
Sources of information:
(2023)