Acrotriche rigida

Acrotriche rigida is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is a rigid, clump-forming, densely-branched shrub with stiff, spreading, sharply-pointed, lance-shaped leaves and spikes of 4 to 7 green flowers and flattened spherical, creamy-green drupes.

Description
Acrotriche rigida is a rigid, clump-forming, densely-branched shrub, that typically grows up to 1.8 m high and 1.2 m wide. The leaves are stiffly spreading, sharply-pointed, lance-shaped 6–11 mm long and 1.0–1.6 mm wide on a petiole 0.8–1.0 mm long with the edges strongly curved downwards. The leaves are whitish, with 3 to 5 veins, deeply grooved on the lower surface and with the edges curved strongly downwards. The flowers are green and usually arranged in spikes of 4 to 7 with bracteoles 1.0–1.5 mm long. The sepals are 1.4–2.8 mm long and the petals are joined at the base, forming a tube 2.5–3.5 mm long with lobes 1.0–1.8 mm long. The ovary has 4 or 5 locules. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is a creamy-green, flattened, spherical drupe, 2.5–3.0 mm in diameter and covered with short white hairs.

Taxonomy
Acrotriche rigida was first formally described in 1960 by Betsy Rivers Jackes (née Betsy R. Paterson) in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, from specimens collected by Cyril Keith Ingram near the Goulburn River in 1958. The specific epithet (rigida) means 'hard' or 'stiff'.

Distribution and habitat
This species of Acrotriche grows in scrub or dry sclerophyll forest on rocky hillsides between the Warrumbungles, Denman and Rylstone, and south to Goobang National Park.