Epacris pulchella

Epacris pulchella, commonly known as wallum heath or coral heath is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a slender, erect shrub with egg-shaped, pointed leaves and white or pinkish, tube-shaped flowers.

Description
Epacris longiflora is a slender, erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.4–1.5 m and has only a few woolly-hairy branches, the stems with inconspicuous leaf scars. The leaves are egg-shaped, with a heart-shaped base and long, tapering tip, 2.1–6.5 mm long and 1.4–4.0 mm wide on a petiole 0.5–0.8 mm long. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils extending down the branches and are white or pinkish and 5–8 mm wide, each flower on a peduncle 1.5–2.0 mm long. The sepals are 2.8–5.0 mm long and the petals are joined at the base to form a tube 3.0–5.5 mm long with lobes 2.5–3.5 mm long. The anthers protrude beyond the end of the petal tube. Flowering occurs from January to May with a peak in March, and the fruit is a capsule 2 mm long. This species is similar to E. microphylla but has longer leaves and flowers.

Taxonomy and naming
Epacris pulchella was first formally described by Antonio José Cavanilles in 1797 and the description was published in his book Icones et descriptiones plantarum. The specific epithet (pulchella) means "beautiful and small".

Distribution and habitat
Wallum heath grows in heath, woodland and forest on ridgetops and hillsides on the coast and nearby tablelands from south-east Queensland to near Conjola in south-eastern New South Wales.