Styphelia adscendens
R.Br. Golden HeathProstrate or decumbent shrub to c. 60 cm high; branchlets finely pubescent. Leaves ascending,often slightly twisted, lanceolate or oblanceolate, 8–32 mm long, 1.8–6 mm wide, mucronate, glabrous (rarely puberulent); margins plane to slightly recurved. Flowers erect, solitary or 2 close together in axils; bracts and bracteoles ovate, obtuse and apiculate; bracts 1–3.5 mm long; bracteoles 3–6 mm long; sepals lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 7–13.5 mm long, apiculate; corolla cream, pale yellow-green or occasionally reddish; tube cylindric or widening slightly towards apex, 12.5–20 mm long, inside with scattered hairs and a ring of denser hairs toward base; lobes acute-aristate, usually recoiled, bearded, 13–17.5 mm long, style 26–38 mm long. Fruit ovoid, 4.3–8.5 mm long. Flowers Jun.–Nov.
LoM, Wim, GleP, VVP, GipP, Gold, GGr, DunT, EGL, EGU, HSF. Also SA, NSW, Tas. Disjunctly distributed in far western Victoria from Casterton area to Stawell, and in the east (e.g. Providence Ponds, Howe Range), occurring in heathland, heathy woodland or open-forest on sandy, sometimes rocky substrates.
Plants from far East Gippsland resemble Tasmanian specimens in having smaller anthers and larger sepals than is typical for western Victorian populations.
Albrecht, D.E. (1996). Epacridaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 464–509. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
