Dicrastylis kumarinensis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dicrastylis kumarinensis |
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Dicrastylis kumarinensis is a special kind of flowering plant that grows in Western Australia. It belongs to a group of plants called Dicrastylis, which are part of the Lamiaceae family. This plant is found only in Western Australia, making it an "endemic" species.
What is Dicrastylis kumarinensis?
Dicrastylis kumarinensis is a small shrub. It stands upright and usually grows between 40 and 80 centimeters tall. That's about the height of a small child!
This plant likes to grow in red sandy soil. You can often find it on hillsides and in open areas called rangelands. Its stems are round and smooth, without any flat, scale-like hairs.
Leaves and Flowers
The leaves of Dicrastylis kumarinensis grow in pairs, one across from the other. They are quite long, from 1.5 to 11.5 centimeters, and about 3 to 15 millimeters wide. The leaves have tiny, branched hairs that make their surface look bumpy or puckered.
When the plant flowers, it has small stalks that are 1.5 to 3 millimeters long. These stalks also have tiny hairs. The flowers have a part called a calyx, which has five small leaf-like parts, each about 1.5 to 2.7 millimeters long. This calyx is covered in branched hairs.
The main part of the flower, called the corolla, is usually yellow, white, or cream-colored. It is about 4.5 to 6 millimeters long. Inside the flower's throat, there are no dots or stripes. Each flower has five stamens, which are the parts that produce pollen. We don't know exactly when this plant flowers, but it might bloom at any time of the year.
How it was Named
This plant was first officially described in 2007 by a scientist named Barbara Lynette Rye. She studied a plant sample that was collected in 1978 near a town called Kumarina in Western Australia.
The plant's name, kumarinensis, comes from this town. It means "from Kumarina." This is how many plants and animals get their scientific names, often based on where they were first found. There are no other scientific names for this plant, meaning it has no "synonyms."
