Homoranthus tropicus

Homoranthus tropicus is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to tropical north Queensland. It is a shrub with curved, club-shaped leaves and white flowers in a corymb-like arrangement on the ends of branchlets.

Description
Homoranthus tropicus is a shrub to 1 m high. The leaves are arranged opposite, club-shaped, curved, shortly pointed and tapering at the base to a short petiole 4-8 mm long, 0.5 mm wide and marked with tiny dots. The white flowers are on a pedicel 0.5-1.5 mm long, the small bracts 1-1.5 mm long, keeled and ending in a short point. The calyx tube, distinctly angled and up to 3-4 mm long, lobes 3-4 mm long. The petals are broadly egg-shaped to almost round, margins smooth, about 2 mm long and the style up to 7 mm long. Flowering occurs sporadically throughout the year, primarily February to July and the fruit is a single seed retained in the calyx.

Taxonomy and naming
Homoranthus tropicus was first formally described in 1981 by Norman Byrnes from a specimen he collected north of Laura in 1975 and the description was published in Austrolbaileya. The specific epithet (tropicus) means "tropical".

Distribution and habitat
This species grows in northern Queensland in heath or shrubby woodland on shallow rocky soils over sandstone.

Conservation status
It has a restricted distribution and considered rare by Briggs and Leigh (1996) given a ROTAP conservation code of 2R.