Friday, April 4, 2014

Chloanthes parviflora

Chloanthes parviflora at the Sandstone Caves

Family - Lamiaceae

Common name - Nil

Flowers and fruit - Tubular flowers are 15 to 30mm long, pale mauve - small purple spots and short hairs inside the tube. I have not observed the fruit. Flowering period is mainly September to November.

Leaves and stems - Leaves are linear with upper surface wrinkled and lower surface white and woolly often concealed due to revolute margins. Leaves are upright, sometimes pressed against the stem. Stems are concealed by leaves - woody at base of shrub.

Habit and habitat - A shrub less than a metre tall growing in poor sandy and gravelly soils in heath.

Distinctive leaves of Chloanthes parviflora

Chloanthes parviflora in The Pilliga