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Philotheca sericea

species of plant

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ18076907
Source-derived summary

Philotheca sericea is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an undershrub with small oval to elliptical leaves and white to pink flowers usually arranged singly at the end of branchlets.

Description

Philotheca sericea is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) with moderately hairy branchlets. The leaves are fleshy, oval to elliptical, 1.5–3 mm (0.059–0.118 in), flat on the top and rounded on the lower side. The flowers are usually arranged singly at the end of branchlets, each flower on a pedicel about 0.5 mm (0.020 in) long. There are five triangular to round sepals about 2.5 mm (0.098 in) long and five white to pink, egg-shaped petals about 10 mm (0.39 in) long and densely covered with soft hairs. The ten stamens are joined at the base and hairy. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is about 4 mm (0.16 in) long with a stout beak about 2 mm (0.079 in) long.

Taxonomy and naming

This philotheca was first formally described in 1970 by Paul Wilson who gave it the name Eriostemon sericeus and published the description in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected by Nathaniel Speck near Kalli in 1964. In 1998, Wilson changed the name to Philotheca sericea in the same journal.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Philotheca sericea” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970, 1964, 1998—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Philotheca, sericea and species can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

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.

Evidence profile

Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18076907. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1964 and 1998.

Critical limits

A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.

Best used for
  • Current terminology
  • Classification context
  • Finding cited technical literature
Verify next

Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Philotheca sericea”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Philotheca sericea primary sources, Philotheca sericea archive and Philotheca research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Philotheca sericea”?
  2. Which observation, specimen, dataset or publication supports the account?
  3. Is the terminology current, historical or disputed?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Philotheca sericea” 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.