Pimelea lyallii

Detailed description

A small to medium-sized shrub. Stems prostrate, flexible, up to 600 mm long, sometimes producing adventitious roots if buried by sand. Young branches ascendant and moderately to densely clad in long, white (sometimes yellowish) hairs; internode length 2.5–8.0 mm; older stems sparsely hairy to glabrous, brown. Node buttresses short, lunate (0.3–0.5 mm), smooth, brown, hairless, or with sparse, short hair, masked by internode hair on young stems, not prominent on leafless stems. Leaves usually distant, sometimes closely spaced and imbricate, ascendant, then patent or deflexed, persistent, on short (0.5 mm), often red petioles; lamina pale green, glabrous above, moderately densely to densely covered in white to yellowish hair below (also along margins and at tip); 5–7 × 2–3 mm wide, elliptic to slightly ovate, flat to slightly concave above, midvein obscure below; acute, base cuneate. Stomata on both leaf surfaces. Inflorescences terminal on branchlets, loose, 3–4-flowered, sometimes clustered in groups of 2 or more; receptacles flat to convex, very hairy. Involucral bracts 4, up to 9 × 3 mm, sometimes with a few hairs on the upperside near the base, densely hairy below and on margins and tips. Plants gynodioecious. Flowers white, on short pedicels (0.5 mm); tube and calyx lobes very hairy outside; inside hairless; female tube 3.5 mm long, ovary portion 3 mm, calyx lobes 1.2 × 0.9 mm; hermaphrodite tube 5 mm long, ovary portion 2 mm, calyx lobes 2.0 × 1.6 mm. Anther filaments inserted at mouth of tube; anther yellow. Ovary very hairy at summit. Fruits ovoid, fleshy, 5.0 × 3.8 mm, white, opaque. The tube breaks off, irregularly, near the base as the fruits ripen. Seeds pyriform, with thin crest, 2.5 × 1.8 mm. Description based on Burrows (2009).