Pimelea cremnophila L.M.Copel. & I.Telford APNI* Description: Erect shrub to 2.5 m high. Stems red-brown, hirsute with strigose white antrorse hairs to 3 mm long, glabrescent with age.
Leaves opposite, petiolate. Petioles 1 mm long, densely hairy; lamina narrow-elliptic to narrow-ovate, acute, 10–37 mm long, 2.5–6 mm wide, abaxial surface hirsute with sacttered white strigose hairs, the hairs denser and longer toward the margins.
Inflorescence axillary or terminal, 1–4 flowered; peduncle c. 1 mm long, strigose; bracts leaf-like. Flowers functionally male, bisexual or functionally female, subsessile. Male flowers with hypanthium 6–8 mm long; sepals 3–4 mm long; stamens 2, rarely 3; anthers narrow-oblong. Bisexual flowers protandrous with hypanthium 4–6.5 mm long; sepals 3–4 mm long, stamens similar to male flowers; ovary c. 1.5 mm long, with erect hairs at apex; style eventually exserted; stigma brush-like. Female flowers with hypanthium 3–4.5 mm long; sepals 1.5–2.5 mm long; staminodes minute; gynocium similar to bisexual flowers.
Fruit dry ovoid, enclosed in the persistent base of the hypanthium, pale green. Seeds ovoid 3–3.5 mm long with minute longitudinal, foveate furrows, red brown.
Flowering: Spring.
Distribution and occurrence: Confined to the gorge rims in the southern part of Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, 40 km E of Walcha. On shallow, skeletal loam over metasediments on exposed cliff tops or more sheltered cliff sides with SW to SE aspects. Altitude 1050-1090 m.
NSW subdivisions: NT
Threatened species: NSW BCA: Critically Endangered
This species is currently known from fewer than 100 individuals
Text by Louisa Murray
Taxon concept: Copeland, L.M. and Telford, R.H., (2006) Pimelea cremnophila (Thymeleaceae), a new species from the New England Tablelands escarpment of northern New South Wales. Telopea 11(2) 111-116.
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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