Boronia hoipolloi facts for kids

Boronia hoipolloi is a unique plant from the citrus family. It grows only in a small area of Queensland, Australia. This plant is a shrub that can stand upright or have branches that hang down. It has leaves made up of many small parts and pretty pink flowers with four petals. Scientists have only found this plant in a few places near Mount Isa.

What is Boronia hoipolloi?

Boronia hoipolloi is a shrub with branches that can grow up to 50 cm (20 in) long. Most of the plant, except for its flowers, is covered in tiny, star-shaped hairs.

How it Looks

The leaves of this plant are made up of seven to twenty-five smaller leaf parts, called leaflets. The whole leaf is about 15–35 mm (0.6–1 in) long and 5–13 mm (0.2–0.5 in) wide. Each leaf has a small stalk, called a petiole, about 2–5 mm (0.08–0.2 in) long.

The leaflets themselves are long and thin, or narrow oval-shaped. They are 1–8 mm (0.04–0.3 in) long and 0.5–1 mm (0.02–0.04 in) wide. The leaflet at the very end is usually longer than the ones next to it, but shorter than the others.

The flowers are pink and grow either alone or in small groups of up to five. They appear where the leaves meet the stem. Each group of flowers grows on a tiny stalk, about 2 mm (0.08 in) long.

The plant has four small, narrow, triangular sepals. These are like tiny leaves that protect the flower bud. They are about 2–3.5 mm (0.079–0.14 in) long and 0.75–1.25 mm (0.030–0.049 in) wide and are very hairy. The four pink petals are 3.5–5 mm (0.1–0.2 in) long and 1.5–2 mm (0.06–0.08 in) wide, and they are hairy on the outside.

Inside the flower, there are eight stamens, which are the parts that make pollen. These stamens are also hairy. The ones opposite the sepals are longer than those near the petals. Boronia hoipolloi flowers from May to June. After flowering, it produces a dry fruit called a capsule. This capsule is mostly hairless and is about 3.5 mm (0.1 in) long and 2 mm (0.08 in) wide.

Its Name and History

The plant Boronia hoipolloi was officially described in 1999 by a scientist named Marco F. Duretto. He published his description in a scientific journal called Austrobaileya.

What "hoipolloi" Means

The second part of its scientific name, hoipolloi, comes from an Ancient Greek phrase. "Hoi polloi" means "the common people" or "the rabble." This name was chosen because the first plant samples used to describe the species were found in a place that looked like an amphitheater. This was a place where "the crowd" or "the common people" would gather.

Where it Lives

This special boronia plant grows in cracks in sandstone cliffs. It also grows on rocky slopes made of loose stones. It has only been found in an area north of a mining camp. This camp is about 200 km (100 mi) north of Camooweal in Queensland.

Protecting the Plant

The Queensland Government lists Boronia hoipolloi as "least concern" under its Nature Conservation Act 1992. This means that, for now, the plant is not in danger of disappearing. It is not considered a threatened species.