Acrothamnus hookeri

Acrothamnus hookeri, commonly known as the mountain beardheath, is a flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and grows in subalpine regions of southeastern Australia. It is a small upright shrub with oblong-shaped leaves and white flowers.

Description
Acrothamnus hookeri is an upright, occasionally bushy shrub about 50 cm high with branchlets that are rough. The leaves are oblong-shaped, 4.0-9.2 mm long, 1.1-2.5 mm wide, edges mostly smooth but finely toothed toward the apex, upper surface flat to curved outward, lower surface sometimes with a whitish covering and 3 middle more or less parallel veins, and a petiole 0.5-1.2 mm long. The white flowers are borne in groups of 1–10 in spikes up to 4-10 mm long, more or less crowded, at the end of branches or upper leaf nodes, bracteoles broadly oval-shaped, 1.2-1.7 mm long and the sepals 1.75-2.6 mm long. The male corolla tube is 2-2.1 mm long, female tubes 1.8-1.9 mm long, lobes about 1.5 mm long and bearded on the inside. Flowering occurs from October to January and the fruit is a fleshy, pink drupe, red when ripe, smooth and 2.2-2.6 mm long.

Taxonomy
Acrothamnus hookeri was first formally described in 2005 by Christopher John Quinn and the description was published in Australian Systematic Botany.

Distribution and habitat
Mountain beardheath grows in montane forest, in heath on wet rocky soils and woodland in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.