Cryptandra sabulicola
KellermannDecumbent to erect, often divaricate shrub to c. 30 cm (rarely 1 m) high; branchlets not spine-tipped; indumentum of stems and flowers of stellate hairs overlain by simple hairs. Leaves shortly petiolate, narrowly ovate to linear and more or less terete, 2–5 mm long, c. 0.5–1 mm wide, grooved beneath, glabrous, scabrous or minutely hispid, apex acute to acuminate, strongly recurved; stipules mostly 1–3 mm long. Flowers sessile, clustered toward branch-tips, sometimes in apparent heads, rarely solitary; bracts brown, broad-ovate, to 1–1.2 mm long, blunt, glabrous or sparsely ciliate; perianth broadly campanulate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, white, ageing pink to red, covered throughout with minute stellate hairs overlain by simple hairs; sepals c. equal to or slightly longer than hypanthium; petals c. 0.5–1 mm long; style 3-lobed at summit, shortly exceeding hypanthium, glabrous. Fruit 2.2–3 mm long, slightly exceeding the enlarged hypanthium. Flowers mostly Aug.–Oct.
LoM, MuM, Wim, RobP, EGU. Also SA, Qld, NSW. Largely confined in Victoria to deep-sand mallee and mallee-heath associations of the Big Desert (e.g. Wyperfeld NP) and Sunset Country, eastward to Annuello area. Locally moderately common.
A few specimens from the Little Desert appear almost intermediate between this species and C. tomentosa (within which C. sabulicola was formerly included; see Kellermann 2020).
Walsh, N.G.; Udovicic, F. (1999). Cryptandra. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 110–114. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Kellermann, J. (2020). Three species of Cryptandra (Rhamnaceae: Pomaderreae) from southern Australia allied to C. tomentosa. Swainsona 33: 125–134.