Dracophyllum pearsonii

Detailed description

Multi–stemmed shrub 0.3–0.5 m tall. Branches: bark on old branches dark grey, deeply fissured, young stems reddish brown. Leaves spirally arranged along branches, imbricate, appressed to stem, dry old leaves present; lamina sheath olive green to light brown, 4–7 × 3–5 mm, coriaceous, striate, shoulders rounded to truncate with margins membranous, ciliate or with only the top half ciliate; lamina rigid and hard, 19.0–32.0 × 0.8–1.5 mm, mid to olive green, linear to linear–subulate, adaxial surface flat, abaxial surface keeled, margins serrulate with 90–100 teeth per 10 mm, apex triquetrous. Inflorescence a few flowered spike near apices of branches; shorter than leaves, erect, lax, 12–20 mm long, oblong. Inflorescence bract over-topping flowers, foliose, coriaceous, 6.0–6.5 × 4–5 mm, linear, ovate–lanceolate at base, surfaces glabrous with a tuft of scabrid hairs at base of adaxial surface, margins ciliate. Flowers 3–6, sessile; flower bracts over-topping flowers, leaf like, linear, 6.0–6.5 × 4–5 mm, with a tuft of scabrid hairs at base of adaxial surface, margins ciliate. Sepals 4.2–4.5 × 1.5–2.0 mm, lanceolate to ovate–lanceolate, shorter to equaling corolla tube; margins ciliate. Corolla white; corolla tube 4.2–4.5 × 1.8–2.0 mm, cylindrical; corolla lobes reflexed, 1.9–2.0 × 1.4–1.5 mm, ovate–triangular to broadly triangular, shorter than corolla tube, apical ridge present, apices inflexed at tip, subacute; adaxial surface papillate. Stamens inserted on corolla tube near the top, filaments 0.2–0.5 mm long; anthers included, 0.8 mm long, oblong, light yellow. Ovary 1.9–2.0 × 1.8–2.0 mm, globose, apex round; nectary scales oblong, 1.0–1.2 × 0.8–1.0 mm, apices obtuse; style included, 0.8–1.0 mm long, glabrous; stigma five–lobed. Fruit light brown, 1.0–1.5 × 1.0–1.2 mm, obovoid, apex truncate, glabrous. Seeds 0.55–0.6 mm long, yellowish brown, ovoid, testa slightly reticulate.