Pimelea sericeovillosa subsp. pulvinaris

Detailed description

Low, compact, much-branched, pale green cushion-forming shrublet to 50 × 250 mm. with brown, tightly packed, appressed, leafy, densely villous young branchlets (older stems usually not visible but retaining dead leaves which cover branchlets inside the cushion). Internode length 0.3–0.6 mm. Branching mainly sympodial and radiating from a stout main stem up to 15 mm in diameter. Node buttresses lunate, dark brown, masked by hairs on young stems, not prominent on leafless branchlets. Leaves decussate, ascending, imbricate, sessile or with very short petioles (0.2 mm). Lamina medium to pale green, elliptic to oblong, 2.2–4.0 × 1.0–1.3 mm, adaxially concave, mid-vein not evident, abaxial surface densely covered with straight, white or greyish-white, moderately long hairs; adaxial surface moderately densely hairy, sometimes glabrate (the youngest leaves have more or less dense adaxial vesture), obtuse, base cuneate, stomata on both adaxial and abaxial surfaces. Inflorescences terminal, with 1 or 2, sometimes 3, flowers. Involucral bracts 4, the same size as, or slightly wider than, adjacent leaves (2.3 × 1.5 mm). Receptacle usually with abundant long hairs. Plants gynodioecious. Flowers 1–(2) per inflorescence, white, on very short (0.1 mm) pedicels, very hairy outside, inside hairless. Female tube 2.5 mm long, ovary portion 2 mm, calyx lobes 1.0–1.2 × 0.5 mm. Hermaphrodite tube 3–4 mm long, ovary portion 2 mm, calyx lobes 1.5 × 0.8–1.0 mm. Anther dehiscence introrse. Ovary with dense short hairs on summit, less dense to half way down. Fruits ovoid, fleshy, yellow or pale orange 2.5–3.0 × 1.8–2.0 mm, seeds narrow-ovoid 2.0–2.2 × 1.0–1.3 mm.