Taxandria marginata

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Marginata from the Latin, furnished with a border. Refers to the hairy leaf margins.

Occurs in disjunct populations from Chatham Island and the Woolbale Hills west of Walpole along the coast to Cheyne Beach and also between Esperance and Cape Arid and the islands of the Recherche Archipelago. Grows in association with granitic outcrops or boulders in coastal or near-coastal heath or woodland.

A shrub to 3 m tall. The leaves single not clustered, generally broadly elliptic, more or less flat, 9–28 mm long and 4–10 mm wide with a stalk 1-5 mm long, with 3–5 longitudinal veins, somewhat hairy or hairless but with a band of appressed fine hairs around the margin.

Flower clusters axillary or terminating short axillary shoots, 10–12 mm across. Bracts and bracteoles hairy. Sepals densely hairy with a rounded triangular tip. Petals white. Stamens 10, one opposite each sepal and petal.

Fruits in roughly globular clusters, typically 7–15 mm across. Each capsule roughly cup-shaped 2.5–3.5 mm across with some hairs in the top half.

Flowers mostly February to August; fruits September to December the fruits persisting for up to a year.







 All photographs (c) Keith Morris, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) unless otherwise indicated.

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