Epacris is a
genus of about forty species of
flowering plants in the family
Ericaceae. It was formerly treated in a closely related but separate family Epacridaceae, but the various
genera within
Epacridaceae including Epacris have been revised in their relationships to each other and brought under the common umbrella of the Ericaceae. The genus Epacris is native to eastern and southeastern
Australia (southeast
Queensland south to
Tasmania and west to southeast
South Australia),
New Caledonia and
New Zealand. The species are known as
heaths or Australian heaths.
Description
Plants in the
genusEpacris are shrubs with simple leaves that are a similar colour on both surfaces and with flowers arranged singly in leaf
axils near the ends of the branches, sometimes extending along the branches. Each flower is surrounded by many
bracts and five, usually
glabroussepals. The
petals are joined to produce a cylindrical or bell-like tube with five lobes on the end. There are five
stamens which are mostly enclosed in the tube, and a single
style which protrudes from the tube. The fruit is a
capsule.[2]
Taxonomy and naming
The genus Epacris was first formally described in 1797 by
Antonio José Cavanilles, who published the description in Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum.[3] Cavanilles did not specify a
type species but in 1983
Edward Groesbeck Voss nominated Epacris longiflora as the
lectotype. The genus name (Epacris) is derived from an
Ancient Greek word meaning "on the summit", referring to habitat preference.[4]
^Craig, John (1854). A New Universal, Technological, Etymological, and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. Vol. 1. London: George Routledge & Co. p. 645.