Micrantheum hexandrum | |
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Micrantheum hexandrum Mount Buffalo National Park, Victoria | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Picrodendraceae |
Genus: | Micrantheum |
Species: | M. hexandrum
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Binomial name | |
Micrantheum hexandrum | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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Micrantheum hexandrum, commonly known as box micrantheum, [2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Picrodendraceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect, monoecious shrub with oblong to narrowly lance-shaped leaves, and small white flowers with six or nine stamens. Picrodendraceae.
Micrantheum hexandrum is an erect, monoecious, more or less glabrous shrub that typically grows to a height of about 2 m (6 ft 7 in). The leaves are oblong to narrowly lance-shaped or lance-shaped, with the narrower end towards the base, 8–15 mm (0.31–0.59 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) wide with a small point on the tip. Male flowers are borne on a peduncle about 8 mm (0.31 in) long, the sepals egg-shaped and 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) long, and have six or nine stamens. Female flowers are more or less sessile, the sepals lance-shaped to egg-shaped and 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long. Flowering mostly occurs from October to February, and the fruit is an oval to spherical capsule 6–7 mm (0.24–0.28 in) long. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Micrantheum hexandrum was first formally described in 1847 by Joseph Dalton Hooker in the London Journal of Botany from specimens collected near Launceston. [6] [7] The specific epithet (hexandrum) means "six stamens". [8]
Box micrantheum grows on rocky sites and near watercourses, often at higher altitudes, from south-eastern Queensland, along the coast and tablelands of New South Wales to scattered places in eastern Victoria and to eastern Tasmania. [2] [3] [4] [5] [9]