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Species

Calothammus accedens T.J. Hawkeswood

Original Distribution

Western Australia

Habitat

The plants grew in sandy soil over laterite, in remnant vegetation on a road verge

Extinction Data

EPBC = Rare, IUCN= Not Listed

Description

Piawaning clawflower.  Slender erect shrub, up to 1.8 m tall, with many branches. The leaves are densely crowded at the ends of its branches, which have prominent leaf and bud scars lower down. The leaves 10 – 15 mm long and 0.8 – 1 mm wide, are stalk less, stiff and linear, with long spreading whitish hairs which are shed on the older leaves. There are short clusters of 4-10 flowers on the lower parts of the stem, usually on one side but sometimes almost encircling the stem. The bell shaped calyx tube is densely at the base, with shorted and sparser hairs higher up. Flowers have 5 narrow, orange to brown petals, up to 7 mm long, and 5 equal staminal claws, 20-25 mm long, which are pinkish – red to dark crimson. There are 15 – 19 filaments on each claw, with anthers 1-1.5 mm long. The fruits are a depressed globe shape or cylindrical, and have 5 short lobes which  wear away with age. There are 5-6 mm long and 6.2-8 mm wide, and are densely hairy at first,  the dark chocolate brown seeds are 1.5-2 mm long

Number of Specimens at Kew

1

Seed Data

10 Seeds sown at 20 °C, 10 placed in storage conditions. A typical seed capsule -  the receptacle encloses the maturing ovary and seed being capped by a disk. The petals have dropped off, the sepals may have hardened and fused to the top of the receptacle, some stamens may persist a while as with the dried style. The top of the ovary may split the disk to release the seed. Successful germination was recorded at the Millennium Seed Bank - Wakehurst - Jan 2008. So far 5 seedlings are being kept at Wakehurst nursery

Specimen Type (Y/N)

Y

Kew Herbcat Barcode Number

K000518031

Collector

A.S. George

Collector Number

17638

Date Collected

28th August 2004

Other Information

Reported to flower in February. The Piawaning clawflower was described in 1984, when it was known from 1 population of 14 plants on a narrow road verge near Piawaning, south east of Moora. This population has since been destroyed. The plants grew in sandy soil over laterite, in remnant vegetation on a road verge. Associated species included rough honeymyrtle (Melaleuca scabra) and wattles (Acacia species). A recently described species closely related to C.brevifolius sharing the following featues: short erect terete, pilose leaves(Hairy long and soft) with oil glands clearly visible on the older less pilose leaves: flowers in short dense clusters; depressed globular to almost cylindirical fruits on which the styles do not persist as they do in some other species. A large shrub 1.8m High with ticker more hairy leaves.

Information Sources

Briggs, J.D. & Leigh, J.H. (1996) Rare or threatened Australian Plants. CSIRO publishing, Melbourne.Brown, A., Thomson-Dans, C. & Marchant, N. (1998). Department of Conservation and Land Management, Como, Western Australia.Walter, K.S. and Gillett, H.J. (eds) (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre IUCN – The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, Hawkeswood, T.J. (1991) One sided Bottlebrush Callothamnus species. Australian Plants, Vol 16, Part 127, Pages 95-114