Kunzea dactylota facts for kids

Kunzea dactylota is a special flowering plant. It belongs to the myrtle family, called Myrtaceae. This plant only grows in a small part of New South Wales, Australia. It's a bushy plant with unique finger-shaped leaves. It also has pretty white flowers that grow in bunches. You can find it high up in the mountains of the Southern Tablelands.

What Does Kunzea dactylota Look Like?

Kunzea dactylota is a spreading shrub. It can grow to about 1.3 m (4 ft) tall. When its branches are young, they are covered in tiny hairs.

Its leaves are long and thin. They look like small cylinders or fingers. Each leaf is about 5–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long. They are less than 1 mm (0.04 in) wide. The tiny stem connecting the leaf to the branch is very short.

The flowers grow in round bunches. There are usually seven to ten flowers in each bunch. These bunches appear near the ends of the branches. Often, the branches keep growing even when the plant is flowering.

Each flower has special leaf-like parts. These are called bracts and bracteoles. The bracts are 4–7 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long. Smaller bracteoles are found at the base of the flowers.

The part of the flower that holds the petals is called the floral cup. It is hairy and about 4 mm (0.2 in) long. The sepals are small and triangular. They are about 2 mm (0.08 in) long and also hairy.

The petals are white and shaped like an egg. They are about 1.5 mm (0.06 in) long. Inside the flower, there are many stamens. There are about 40 to 50 stamens, each about 3 mm (0.1 in) long. This plant blooms between November and January.

How Kunzea dactylota Got Its Name

The plant Kunzea dactylota was officially described in 2016. A scientist named Hellmut R. Toelken first wrote about it. He studied a plant sample found in the Tinderry Range. His description was published in a science journal.

The second part of its name, dactylota, comes from an Ancient Greek word. The word is daktylos, which means "finger." This name was chosen because the leaves of this plant look like tiny fingers.

Where Kunzea dactylota Lives

This type of kunzea plant grows in rocky areas. It likes to live in a type of shrubland called heath. You can often find it growing with other trees. These include Tingiringi gum (Eucalyptus glaucescens) and snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora). Most of these plants are found in the Tinderry Range.