Zieria actites facts for kids

Zieria actites is a special plant. It belongs to the citrus family, just like oranges and lemons! You can only find this plant on one lonely mountain in Queensland, Australia. It's a small, bushy plant with thin, strong branches. Its leaves have three parts, a bit like a clover. It also has tiny flowers that are cream or light pink. These flowers have four petals and four stamens (the parts that make pollen).

What Does Zieria actites Look Like?

Zieria actites is a thick, bushy plant. It can grow up to 1 m (3 ft) tall. It has branches that stand straight up and are thin but strong.

Leaves of the Plant

The leaves of this plant are quite interesting. Each leaf has three parts, making it look a bit like a clover. If you smell the leaves, they might remind you of aniseed, which is a licorice-like scent. The middle part of the leaf is about 13–28 mm (0.5–1 in) long and 6.5–11 mm (0.3–0.4 in) wide. The other two leaf parts are a little smaller. You can see a clear line down the middle of the underside of each leaf. The leaves also have tiny, see-through oil glands. The stalk that holds the leaf is about 2–10 mm (0.08–0.4 in) long.

Flowers and Fruit

The flowers of Zieria actites are cream or light pink. They grow in groups of nine to twenty flowers. These groups appear where the leaves meet the stem. Each group of flowers grows on a stalk about 8–20 mm (0.3–0.8 in) long. The four petals are narrow and shaped like an oval. They are about 2 mm (0.08 in) long. The edges of the petals are a bit hairy. The four stamens, which are the parts that hold pollen, are very small, less than 1 mm (0.04 in) long.

This plant mainly flowers from September to May. After the flowers, it grows fruit. The fruit is a smooth capsule. It is about 3 mm (0.1 in) long and 2 mm (0.08 in) wide.

How Zieria actites Got Its Name

The plant Zieria actites was first officially described in 1941. This was done by two scientists, Marco Duretto and Paul Forster. They studied a plant sample found on Mount Larcom. This mountain is about 5 km (3 mi) north-west of Yarwun. Their description was published in a science journal called Austrobaileya.

The second part of the plant's name, actites, comes from the Greek word actites. This word means "watcher." It was chosen because you can see the Pacific Ocean from the mountain tops where this plant grows. However, in Ancient Greek, aktitēs (ἀκτίτης) actually means "dweller on the coast."

Where Does Zieria actites Live?

This special zieria plant grows in open woodlands. It likes to live in cracks on rocky cliffs and outcrops. You can find it on Mount Larcom, but only at high elevations. It grows higher than about 630 m (2,000 ft) above sea level.

Why Is Zieria actites Important to Protect?

Zieria actites is listed as an "Endangered" plant. This means there are very few of these plants left in the wild. It is protected under a law in Queensland called the Nature Conservation Act 1992. This law helps to keep the plant safe and prevent it from disappearing forever.