Cryptandra exilis

Cryptandra exilis, commonly known as slender pearlflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to Tasmania. It is a small, straggly, low-growing shrub with linear leaves and tube-shaped white or cream-coloured flowers arranged in small groups on the ends of branches.

Description
Cryptandra exilis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 40 cm and has slender, low-lying or straggly stems. Its leaves are arranged in small bundles on short side-branches and are linear with the edges rolled under and 2–7 mm long. The flowers are usually arranged in groups of 2 to 6 on the ends of the main branches with dark brown bracts at the base, half as long as the sepal tube. The sepals are white or cream-coloured and joined at the base, forming a densely hairy tube more than 2 mm long with lobes about 1.5 mm long. The petals form a hood over the stamens and the style is about 2 mm long. Flowering occurs from September to May, and the fruit is a capsule about 2.5 mm long.

Taxonomy
Cryptandra exilis was first formally described in 1991 by Dennis Ivor Morris in Aspects of Tasmanian Botany - a tribute to Winifred Curtis from specimens collected by Tony Moscal in 1980. The specific epithet (exilis) means "small" or "weak".

Distribution and habitat
Slender pearlflower grows in heathy or shrubby forest from Cape Barren Island to the Tasman Peninsula on the east coast of Tasmania.