Common name: Rabbit-ears twinleaf
Roepera compressa (J.M.Black) Beier & Thulin APNI* Synonyms: Zygophyllum compressum J.M.Black APNI*
Description: Erect or ascending annual.
Leaflets ovate to almost orbicular, the uppermost oblong and more or less acute, 8–15 mm long, appressed to each other with their upper surfaces, glaucous.
Sepals 4, glaucous with whitish membranous margins. Petals 4, obovate, rounded at the apex, 4–6 mm long, twice as long as the sepals, yellow; stamens 8; filaments winged in the lower part; disk with 4 erect linear-oblong lobes which are truncate and ciliolate at the apex and almost as long as the ovary.
Capsule obovoid, 7–10 mm long, 4-angled; seeds 2–4 in each cell.
Flowering: April – November, rarely in summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Rarely collected in the western half of NSW (near Cobar and in the far SW), apparently restricted by habitat availability. Also in NW Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and southern Northern Territory. On saline, gypseous plains.
NSW subdivisions: NWP, SFWP
Other Australian states: Vic. S.A. W.A. N.T.
Distinctive in the genus by having its leaflets appressed to each other (Barker 2013). See ecological information in I.R.K. Sluiter (2010) On the distribution, ecology and conservation status of three rare plant taxa Zygophyllum compressum, Elachanthus glaber and Eremophila crassifolia in southwestern New South Wales. Cunninghamia 11(4).
Text by Louisa Murray (Feb 2012); edited KL Wilson (May 2012; Jan 2014)
Taxon concept: eFloraSA (2012); RM Barker, Flora of Australia vol. 26 (2013)
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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