Description: Shrubs, glabrous or with simple or stellate hairs, unarmed; branchlets smooth.
Leaves alternate, simple, glandular-punctate, margins entire or rarely toothed.
Inflorescences axillary or terminal, cymose or flowers solitary; bracteoles 2, medial on slender pedicels. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous. Sepals free. Petals 5, valvate, free or united, usually glabrous. Stamens 10, free, divergent; filaments terete, glabrous; anthers versatile, apex not glandular. Carpels 5, glabrous or stellate-hairy, apex sterile; styles fused, arising from about the middle of the carpels; stigma minutely lobed; ovules 2 in each carpel.
Fruit of 1–5 cocci; cocci not transversely ridged, with a rounded or beaked apex; seeds sub-reniform, c. 3 mm long, smooth.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 28 spp., Aust. & N.Z. Aust.: 27 spp. (endemic), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., Tas., S.A.
Refs Weston & Porteners (1991c), Wilson (1970, 1998d, 2013). Copeland & Telford (2018). Alvarez & Duretto (2019).
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Leionema paulii
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Petals >7 mm long, erect or spreading; stamens considerably exceeding petals | 2 |
| Petals <6 mm long, ± spreading; stamens ±equal to or slightly longer than petals | 6 |
| 2 | Petals fused | Leionema sympetalum |
| Petals free
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Stems ± terete | 4 |
| Stems strongly angled
Back to 2 | 5 |
| 4 | Stems pilose; leaves c. 10 mm long | Leionema carruthersii |
| Stems stellate-tomentose; leaves 20–40 mm long
Back to 3 | Leionema viridiflorum |
| 5 | Leaf margins entire; inflorescence pendulous | Leionema ralstonii |
| Leaf margins frequently serrulate; inflorescence erect
Back to 3 | Leionema scopulinum |
| 6 | Leaves 2.5–4 cm wide, base stem-clasping | Leionema ambiens |
| Leaves <2 cm wide, base not stem-clasping
Back to 1 | 7 |
| 7 | Leaves hairy (including minutely papillose) on abaxial surface | 8 |
| Leaves glabrous on abaxial surface
Back to 6 | 13 |
| 8 | Inflorescence terminal | 9 |
| Inflorescence axillary
Back to 7 | 10 |
| 9 | Petals yellow, pale red towards apex on abaxial surface; leaves pilose or coarsely stellate on lower surface; pedicels 1–2 mm long | Leionema diosmeum |
| Petals white; leaves pilose on lower surface; pedicels 3–5.5 mm long
Back to 8 | Leionema westonii |
| 10 | Leaves 2–8 cm long, apex 2-toothed, margins entire to finely toothed; inflorescences >10 mm long, c. 10-flowered | Leionema dentatum |
| Leaves 0.8–2(–3) cm long, apex entire, margins entire; inflorescences usually <10 mm long, 1–3-flowered
Back to 8 | 11 |
| 11 | Ovary globose, white stellate-pubescent or rarely glabrous; cocci c. 3.5 mm long; leaves smooth on adaxial surface | Leionema phylicifolium |
| Ovary rostrate, glabrous, pilose or rarely villous; cocci 6 mm long or more; leaves minutely scabridulous on adaxial surface
Back to 10 | 12 |
| 12 | Inflorescences 3-flowered, rarely some (never all) 1-flowered; leaves straight, mostly 12–21 mm long, abaxial surface visible | Leionema ceratogynum |
| Inflorescences 1-flowered; leaves slightly up-curved, mostly 7–15 mm long, abaxial surfaces mostly obscured by revolute margins
Back to 11 | Leionema lachnaeoides |
| 13 | Stems strongly angled, glabrous; leaves 5–7 cm long, narrow-elliptic, margins finely and regularly toothed, apex acute | Leionema coxii |
| Stems terete to slightly angled, glabrous or hairy; leaves 0.6–5 cm long, margins usually entire or sometimes minutely erose or crenate
Back to 7 | 14 |
| 14 | Inflorescences axillary; leaves linear to narrow-oblong to marrow-elliptic, margins recurved to revolute | Leionema phylicifolium |
| Inflorescences terminal and often also axillary; leaves linear- to broad-spathulate or ± circular, obovate or elliptic, margins flat to recurved
Back to 13 | 15 |
| 15 | Leaves >13 mm long | 16 |
| Leaves <13 mm long
Back to 14 | 17 |
| 16 | Leaves spathulate, oblanceolate, obovate or narrowly oblong, 3–10 mm wide | Leionema elatius |
| Leaves linear-oblanceolate, 2–3 mm wide
Back to 15 | Leionema praetermissum |
| 17 | Stems warty, minutely hairy in longitudinal lines or all over; leaves erect to spreading, not imbricate, 2–4 mm wide | Leionema lamprophyllum |
| Stems not warty, minutely stellate-hairy all over; leaves erect and ± imbricate, 4–6 mm wide
Back to 15 | Leionema rotundifolium |
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