Cryptandra tomentosa
Lindl. Prickly CryptandraDecumbent to erect, often divaricate shrub to c. 30 cm (rarely 1 m) high; branchlets sometimes terminating in spines; indumentum of branchlets (and where present, flowers) entirely of minute stellate hairs. Leaves shortly petiolate, terete, 2–5(–8) mm long, c. 0.5 mm wide, grooved beneath, glabrous, scabrous or minutely hispid; stipules to 1.5 mm long. Flowers sessile, clustered toward branch-tips, sometimes in apparent heads, rarely solitary; bracts brown, broad-ovate, to c. 1 mm long, blunt, glabrous or sparsely ciliate; perianth broad-campanulate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, white, ageing pink to red, glabrous or glabrescent, at least toward base; sepals c. equal to or slightly longer than hypanthium; petals c. 0.5 mm long; style 3-lobed at summit, shortly exceeding hypanthium, glabrous. Fruit 2.5–3 mm long, slightly exceeding the enlarged hypanthium. Flowers May–Oct.
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, RobP, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, OtR. Also SA, NSW. Widespread and locally common on sandy heaths of the Big and Little Deserts and near-coastal areas west of Port Phillip Bay, in heaths and woodlands in the Grampians, north-central areas (Wedderburn, Inglewood areas) and Brisbane Ranges, with an isolated eastern occurrence south of Rosedale.
A few specimens from the Little Desert appear almost intermediate between C. tomentosa and C. sabulicola.
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.