Coleanthera Stschegl.

Scientific Description

Family Epacridaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs; evergreen; leptocaul, or pachycaul. Helophytic to xerophytic. Leaves small; alternate; spiral, or four-ranked; ‘herbaceous’, or leathery; imbricate, or not imbricate; petiolate to sessile; non-sheathing; simple. Leaf blades entire; flat; linear, or ovate, or orbicular; palmately veined; cross-venulate, or without cross-venules. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins flat (or concave). Stem anatomy. Nodes unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Entomophilous, or ornithophilous. Pollination mechanism unspecialized.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers solitary (with a minute rudiment of another), or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’ (then 2 or 3 together). Inflorescences axillary. Flowers bracteate; bi- bracteolate; small; fragrant, or odourless; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent (or very obscure). Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 -whorled; polysepalous; imbricate; exceeded by the corolla; regular; persistent. Corolla 5; 1 -whorled; gamopetalous; lobed. Corolla lobes long. Corolla valvate; tubular (tube short); regular; glabrous abaxially; hairy adaxially (bearded at the throat, lobes more or less bearded inside); white, or pink; persistent, or deciduous. Corolla lobes linear (and distinctly revolute). Androecium 5. Androecial members adnate (to the corolla); all equal; coherent; 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5. Staminal insertion in the throat of the corolla tube. Stamens becoming exserted; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous; all alternating with the corolla members. Filaments glabrous; filiform (long, filiform). Anthers cohering (above the middle in a cone round the style); all alike (linear); attached by the middle; becoming inverted during development, their morphological bases ostensibly apical in the mature stamens; non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits (by a single median slit); finally introrse (inverting during development); unilocular; bisporangiate; unappendaged. Pollen shed as single grains; without viscin strands. Gynoecium 5 carpelled. The pistil 5 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 5 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; filiform; attenuate from the ovary; apical; becoming exserted. Stigmas 1; small, truncate, or clavate, or capitate. Placentation apical. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; non-arillate; anatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit fleshy, or non-fleshy (mesocarp dry or scarcely pulpy); indehiscent; a drupe. The drupes with separable pyrenes, or with one stone. Fruit 5 celled. Endocarp hard. Fruit 5 seeded (or fewer by abortion). Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds wingless. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Aluminium accumulation not found. Photosynthetic pathway: C₃.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia. South-West Botanical Province.

Additional characters Prophylls few.