Smooth zieria facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Smooth zieria |
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| Zieria laevigata in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne | |
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Zieria
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| Species: |
laevigata
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The Smooth Zieria (Zieria laevigata) is a special kind of flowering plant. It's also known as the smooth-leaved zieria or twiggy midge bush. This plant belongs to the citrus family, called Rutaceae. You can only find it growing naturally in eastern Australia.
The Smooth Zieria is a straight-growing bush. It has smooth leaves made of three parts. Its flowers are usually pale pink or white. Each flower has four petals and four stamens (the parts that make pollen). This plant likes to grow in poor soil, especially on rocky areas. It blooms from late winter to spring.
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What Does Smooth Zieria Look Like?
The Smooth Zieria is a bush that grows upright. It can reach about 150 centimeters (about 5 feet) tall. Its branches are mostly smooth.
Its Leaves
The leaves are made up of three smaller parts, called leaflets. The middle leaflet is long and thin or oval-shaped. It's usually 15 to 40 millimeters (about 0.6 to 1.6 inches) long and 1 to 3 millimeters (about 0.04 to 0.12 inches) wide. The leaf stalk, called a petiole, is about 2 to 4 millimeters (about 0.08 to 0.16 inches) long.
Unlike most other zieria plants, the leaflets of the Smooth Zieria are not bumpy. Instead, their edges are curled inwards, sometimes all the way to the middle line of the leaf. The top side of the leaf is dark green, while the bottom side is pale green and feels soft and fuzzy.
Its Flowers and Fruits
The flowers usually grow in groups of three, but sometimes you can find up to 23 flowers in a group. These groups are about the same length as the leaves.
The sepals, which are small leaf-like parts that protect the flower bud, are shaped like triangles. They are about 2.5 millimeters (about 0.1 inches) long and have tiny bumps on them. The four petals are white to pale pink. They are 3 to 5 millimeters (about 0.12 to 0.2 inches) long and overlap where they join the flower. They are also covered with tiny, soft hairs.
The Smooth Zieria blooms from August to December. After the flowers, its fruits appear from November to December. These fruits are smooth but have scattered bumps on them.
How It Got Its Name
The Smooth Zieria was first officially described in 1815 by a scientist named Aimé Bonpland. He wrote about it in his book Description des Plantes Rares cultivees a Malmaison et a Navarre.
The second part of its scientific name, laevigata, is a Latin word. It means "smooth." This name perfectly describes its smooth leaves, which are different from many other zieria plants.
Where Smooth Zieria Grows
The Smooth Zieria is a common plant found in many places along the coasts and nearby tablelands of eastern Australia. You can see it from near Stanthorpe in Queensland all the way down to Jervis Bay in New South Wales.
It likes to grow in poor soil, especially on rocky areas made of sandstone and granite. You might often find it growing alongside another tree called the Orange gum (Eucalyptus prava).
