Baeckea brevifolia

Baeckea brevifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to south-eastern New South Wales. It is a shrub with narrow egg-shaped to oblong leaves and white to pink flowers with nine to fifteen stamens.

Description
Baeckea brevifolia is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1 m. The leaves are elliptic to narrowly oblong, triangular in cross-section, 1.0–2.3 mm long, 0.7–1.0 mm wide and sessile. The flowers are up to 7.5 mm wide and arranged singly in leaf axils on a pedicel 0.5–2.5 mm long with bracteoles 1.0–1.5 mm long. The five sepals are reddish and lobed, the lobes 0.5–1.2 mm long. The five petals are white to pale pink and 1.9–2.5 mm long, there are usually nine to fifteen stamens and the style is about 1.0 mm long. Flowering mainly occurs from July to September and the fruit is 1.7–2.0 mm in diameter.

Taxonomy
The species was first formally described in 1807 by Edward Rudge who gave it the name Leptospermum brevifolium in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. In 1828, Augustin Pyramus de Candolle changed the name to Baeckea brevifolia in his Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. The specific epithet (brevifolia) means "short-leaved".

Distribution and habitat
This baeckea is a common heathland shrub that mainly grows on sandstone soils on the coast and nearby ranges of New South Wales between Woy Woy and Milton.