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Andersonia lehmanniana

Andersonia lehmanniana is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with pointed lance-shaped leaves and white, cream-coloured or pink and blue or purple flowers.

Description

Andersonia lehmanniana is a shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are lance-shaped with a pointed tip, long with the ends curved backwards. The flowers are arranged in heads of three to twelve or more, and have oblong sepals long, the petals white, cream-coloured or pink and blue or purple, forming a tube with lobes shorter than the petal tube and bearded inside.

Taxonomy

Andersonia lehmanniana was first formally described in 1845 by Otto Wilhelm Sonder in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae from specimens collected near Guildford in 1839. The specific epithet (lehmanniana) honours Johann Georg Christian Lehmann.

In 1962, Leslie Watson described subspecies pubescens (previously known as Andersonia pubescens <small>Sond.</small>), and that name, and the name of the autonym, are accepted by the Australian Plant Census.

  • Andersonia lehmanniana <small>Sond.</small> subsp. lehmanniana (the autonym) is an erect, bushy, compact shrub high, with leaves mostly long and wide, flowers on the ends of branches, sepals usually about long, petals white, pink and blue and about shorter than the sepals, the lobes as long as the petal tube
  • Andersonia lehmanniana subsp. pubescens <small>(Sond.) L.Watson</small> is an erect or sprawling shrub, high, with leaves mostly long and more or less pressed against the stem, flowers mostly not on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering, sepals usually narrower than those of subsp. lehmanniana, petals pink, bluish purple or pink and cream-coloured, usually less densely bearded that in the other subspecies.

Distribution and habitat

This species of Andersonia grows in sandy soils on sandplains or hills between Geraldton and Hopetoun in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Mallee and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australiai. Subspecies lehmanniana occurs in near-coastal areas and subsp. pubescens in more inland areas of the same regions.

Conservation status

Both subspecies of Andersonia lehmanniana are listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

References