Kunzea capitata
species of plant
Kunzea capitata is a shrub species in the family Myrtaceae. It is native to New South Wales in Australia.
Description
Kunzea capitata has a spreading or erect habit and may grow up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in height, but is usually within the range of 0.5–1 metre (1 ft 8 in – 3 ft 3 in). Flowers are pink to purple, or occasionally white. These are produced on the branch ends in "heads". Leaves are 3.5–9 millimetres (0.14–0.35 in) long and 1.5–4.5 millimetres (0.059–0.177 in) wide, with recurved tips and 1 millimetre (0.039 in) long petioles.
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by English botanist James Smith in 1797 in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, and given the name Metrosideos capitata. In 1846, Gustav Heynhold transferred the species to Kunzea as K. capitata. The specific epithet (capitata) is derived from the Latin word caput meaning 'head', alluding to the arrangement of the flowers.
Distribution and habitat
The species occurs in heathland and dry sclerophyll forest from the Ulladulla district northward to Richmond River.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kunzea capitata” 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.