Pimelea humilis

File:Pimelea humilis habit.jpg

Habit in the Australian National Botanic Gardens

Pimelea humilis, also known as common riceflower or dwarf riceflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect or scrambling shrub with hairy stems, elliptic to lance-shaped leaves and heads of 12 to 52 of creamy-white, bisexual or female flowers.

Description

Pimelea humilis is an erect or scrambling that typically grows to a height of Template:Cvt and has densely hairy young stems. Its leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, narrowly elliptic to lance-shaped, mostly Template:Cvt long, Template:Cvt wide on a short petiole. The flowers are arranged in clusters of 12 to 52 on a peduncle Template:Cvt long, surrounded by 4 or 6 egg-shaped involucral bracts Template:Cvt long, Template:Cvt wide and green with a yellow base. The flowers are creamy-white, the flower tube Template:Cvt long, the sepals Template:Cvt long, and the stamens shorter than the sepals. Flowering occurs from September to December and the fruit is green and about Template:Cvt long.

Common riceflower is similar to P. linifolia but is smaller, softer and has hairy stems.

Taxonomy

Pimelea humilis was first formally described by Robert Brown in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae in 1810. The specific epithet (humilis) means "low" or "low-growing".

Distribution and habitat

Common riceflower grows in heath, woodland, forest and grassland, often in sandy soil. It is widespread and common in Victoria, but less common in New South Wales, growing at Robertson and south of Eden. It also occurs east of the Mount Lofty Range in South Australia and in north-eastern Tasmania.