| Calytrix decandra | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Myrtales |
| Family: | Myrtaceae |
| Genus: | Calytrix |
| Species: | C. decandra |
| Binomial name | |
| Calytrix decandra DC. | |
Calytrix decandra, commonly known as the pink starflower, is a species of plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae that is endemic to Western Australia. [1]
Myrtaceae or the myrtle family is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pohutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All species are woody, contain essential oils, and have flower parts in multiples of four or five. The leaves are evergreen, alternate to mostly opposite, simple, and usually entire. The flowers have a base number of five petals, though in several genera the petals are minute or absent. The stamens are usually very conspicuous, brightly coloured and numerous.
Endemism is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation, country or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species that is endemic is precinctive, which applies to species that are restricted to a defined geographical area.
The shrub has a semi-prostrate habit and typically grows to a height of 0.1 to 1 metre (0 to 3 ft). It blooms between August and December producing pink-purple star shaped flowers. [1]
Found on sandplains and among granite outcrops along the south coast in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia where it grows on sandy soils.
Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be predominantly white, pink, or gray in color, depending on their mineralogy. The word "granite" comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the coarse-grained structure of such a holocrystalline rock. Strictly speaking, granite is an igneous rock with between 20% and 60% quartz by volume, and at least 35% of the total feldspar consisting of alkali feldspar, although commonly the term "granite" is used to refer to a wider range of coarse-grained igneous rocks containing quartz and feldspar.
The Goldfields-Esperance region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the south eastern corner of Western Australia, and comprises the local government areas of Coolgardie, Dundas, Esperance, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Laverton, Leonora, Menzies, Ngaanyatjarraku and Ravensthorpe.
The species was first formally described by the botanist Candolle in 1828 in the work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. It has also been described as Calycothrix candolleana by Johannes Conrad Schauer in 1843 in Monographia Myrtacearum Xerocarpicarum, as Calycothrix conanthera by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1859 in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae and as Calytrix candolleana George Bentham in 1867 in Orders XLVIII. Myrtaceae- LXII. Compositae in Flora Australiensis . [2]
Johannes Conrad Schauer was a botanist interested in Spermatophytes. He was born in Frankfurt am Main and attended the gymnasium of Mainz from 1825 to 1837. For the next three years he worked at the Hofgarten of Würzburg. Schauer then gained a position as assistant at the botanical garden at Bonn where he worked until 1832 when he was placed in charge of the botanic garden in Breslau, with C.G. Nees. He gained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg 1835 and was appointed professor of botany at the University of Greifswald from 1843 until his death in 1848.
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria by Governor Charles La Trobe in 1853, and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria. He named many Australian plants.
George Bentham was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".
