Boronia microphylla

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Small-leaved boronia
Boronia microphylla leaves and flowers (3).jpg
Boronia microphylla leaves and flowers
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Boronia
Species:
B. microphylla
Binomial name
Boronia microphylla
Boronia microphylla DistMap75.png
Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium

Boronia microphylla, commonly known as small-leaved boronia, is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a shrub with pinnate leaves with small leaflets and pink, four-petalled flowers.

Contents

Description

Boronia microphylla is a shrub which grows to a height of 0.3–1.0 m (1–3 ft). Its youngest branches are covered with small, warty glands and scattered bristly hairs. It has pinnate leaves with 5 to 15 leaflets on a rachis 3–16 mm (0.1–0.6 in) long and a petiole 2–8 mm (0.08–0.3 in) long. The leaflets are spatula-shaped to wedge-shaped, 3–8 mm (0.1–0.3 in) long, 1–4 mm (0.04–0.2 in) wide and glabrous. [2] [3]

The flowers are pink to purplish and are arranged mostly in the upper leaf axils in groups of up to five on a stalk 3–10 mm (0.1–0.4 in) long. The four petals are 5–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long and glabrous. Flowering occurs from October to February. [2] [3]

Taxonomy and naming

Boronia microphylla was first formally described in 1825 by Franz Sieber and the description was published in Ludwig Reichenbach's Iconographia Botanica Exotica. [4] [5] The specific epithet (microphylla) is derived from the Ancient Greek words mikros meaning "little" [6] :488 and phyllon meaning "leaf". [6] :466

Distribution and habitat

This boronia grows in heath and forest in coastal areas north from Moruya in New South Wales to near Stanthorpe in Queensland, including areas inland as far as the Great Dividing Range. [2] [7] [8]

Use in horticulture

Boronias are not usually easy to grow in the garden, but this species is one of the hardiest as long as it is grown in a protected position and given adequate water. It is most easily propagated from cuttings. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Boronia pinnata</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia pinnata is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae, and is endemic to New South Wales. It is an erect, woody shrub with pinnate leaves and groups of between three and forty pink flowers arranged in leaf axils. It flowers in spring and early summer and is found in coastal areas between Ballina and Jervis Bay.

<i>Boronia muelleri</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia muelleri, commonly known as the forest boronia or pink boroina, is a flowering plant that occurs in forest, woodland and heath in Victoria and New South Wales in Australia. It is an erect, woody shrub or small tree with pinnate leaves and up to fifteen pink to white four-petalled flowers arranged in leaf axils in spring and summer.

<i>Boronia algida</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia algida, commonly known as alpine boronia, is a flowering plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves and white to bright pink, four-petalled flowers usually borne singly on the ends of branches.

<i>Boronia mollis</i> Species of plant

Boronia mollis, commonly known as soft boronia, is a plant in the citrus family and is endemic to New South Wales. It is a shrub with pinnate leaves, and small groups of pink flowers in leaf axils. It grows in coastal areas in forest.

<i>Boronia safrolifera</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia safrolifera, commonly known as safrole boronia, is a species of flowering plant that is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect, woody shrub with pinnate leaves that have up to nineteen leaflets, and white to pink, four-petalled flowers.

<i>Cyanothamnus anemonifolius</i> Species of flowering plant

Cyanothamnus anemonifolius, commonly known as narrow-leaved boronia or sticky boronia, is a flowering plant that is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with mostly pinnate leaves, with white to pale pink four-petalled flowers in leaf axils.

<i>Boronia alulata</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia alulata is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to Cape York Peninsula. It is an erect shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves and pink or white, four-petalled flowers.

<i>Boronia filifolia</i> Species of plant

Boronia filifolia, commonly known as the slender boronia, is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a slender shrub with simple or pinnate leaves and pale to deep pink four-petalled flowers.

<i>Boronia floribunda</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia floribunda, commonly known as pale pink boronia, is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to near-coastal areas of eastern New South Wales. It is an erect, woody shrub with compound leaves and large numbers of white to pale pink, four-petalled flowers in spring and early summer.

<i>Boronia subulifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia subulifolia is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in south-eastern New South Wales in Australia. It is an erect, woody shrub with pinnate leaves with mostly linear leaflets, and light to deep pink, four-petalled flowers in the leaf axils or on the ends of the branches.

<i>Boronia thujona</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia thujona, commonly known as the bronzy boronia, is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to near coastal areas of southern New South Wales. It is a shrub or small tree with aromatic, pinnate leaves and groups of between two and six bright pink flowers in the leaf axils.

<i>Boronia angustisepala</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia angustisepala is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to New South Wales, Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves with up to eleven leaflets, and bright pink, four-petalled flowers.

Boronia anomala is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is only known from a single population growing under an overhang in a sandstone gorge in the Kimberley Australia region of Western Australia. It is an erect, mostly hairless shrub with pinnate leaves and four-petalled flowers.

<i>Boronia galbraithiae</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia galbraithiae, commonly known as the aniseed boronia or Galbraith's boronia, is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in Victoria. It is an erect, woody, fennel-scented, hairless shrub with pinnate leaves and white to deep pink, four-petalled flowers arranged in groups in the leaf axils.

<i>Cyanothamnus inflexus</i> Species of flowering plant

Cyanothamnus inflexus is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to tablelands near the New South Wales - Queensland border in Australia. It is an erect, woody shrub with pinnate leaves and up to seven white to pink four-petalled flowers in the leaf axils. Boronia bipinnata is similar but has larger, bipinnate or tripinnate leaves and smaller sepals and petals.

Cyanothamnus montimulliganensis is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to a single mountain in Queensland. It is an erect, woody shrub with pinnate or bipinnate leaves and white, four-petalled flowers usually arranged singly in leaf axils.

<i>Boronia rubiginosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia rubiginosa is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to New South Wales in Australia. It is a shrub with pinnate leaves that are paler on the lower surface, and up to three pale to bright pink, four-petalled flowers in the leaf axils.

<i>Boronia squamipetala</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia squamipetala is a species of plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae, and is endemic to Queensland, Australia. It is an erect shrub with pinnate leaves with between five and thirteen elliptic leaflets, and green to white, four-petalled flowers with hairy backs.

<i>Boronia tolerans</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia tolerans is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Northern Territory in Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves and white, four-petalled flowers. It is only known from Nitmiluk National Park.

Cyanothamnus yarrowmerensis is a species of erect, woody shrub that is endemic to Queensland. It has pinnate or bipinnate leaves and groups of up to seven flowers with white petals in leaf axils.

References

  1. "Boronia microphylla". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Weston, Peter; Duretto, Marco. "Boronia microphylla". Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney: plantnet. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  3. 1 2 Harden, Gwen J., ed. (2002). Flora of New South Wales. Volume 2 (revised ed.). Sydney: New South Wales University Press. p. 275. ISBN   978-0868406091.
  4. "Boronia microphylla". APNI. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  5. Sieber, Franz; Reichenbach, Ludwig (1825). Iconographia Botanica Exotica. Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister. p. 53. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  6. 1 2 Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
  7. 1 2 "Boronia microphylla". Australian Native Plants Society Australia. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  8. Duretto, Marco F.; Wilson, Paul G.; Ladiges, Pauline Y. "Boronia microphylla". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Retrieved 18 April 2019.