Calothamnus preissii
species of plant
Calothamnus preissii is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low-lying, sometimes ground-hugging shrub with needle-like leaves and reddish-purple flowers in spring.
Description
Calothamnus preissii is a prostrate shrub growing to a height of about 0.4 metres (1.3 ft) with linear leaves that are circular in cross-section. The flowers are reddish purple and have 4 sepals, 4 petals and 4 claw-like bundles of stamens. The bundles are all narrow but the upper ones are larger and contain 3 to 5 stamens but the lower two have only 1 or 2 stamens. Flowering occurs from July to November and is followed by fruits that are woody capsules.
Taxonomy and naming
Calothamnus preissii was first formally described by Johannes Schauer in 1843 in Dissertatio phytographica de Regelia, Beaufortia et Calothamno. The specific epithet (preissii) honours the German-born British botanist, Ludwig Preiss.
In 2014 Craven, Edwards and Cowley proposed that the species be renamed Melaleuca preissii but the name is not accepted by the Australian Plant Census.
Distribution and habitat
Calothamnus preissii occurs in and between the Tutanning Nature Reserve near Pingelly, the Cranbrook district and Frankland in the Esperance Plains and Jarrah Forest biogeographic regions where it grows in gravelly sand or clay on hillsides.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Calothamnus preissii” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15395246. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1843 and 2014.
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This entry incorporates text from “Calothamnus preissii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.