Micromyrtus flaviflora



Micromyrtus flaviflora is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to inland areas of Australia. It is an erect shrub with overlapping, keeled, oblong leaves, and yellow flowers arranged singly in leaf axils, but often appearing clustered.

Description
Micromyrtus flaviflora is an erect, loose or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1.5 m and has reddish-brown, papery bark. Its leaves are oblong, 1–2 mm long and 0.5–1 mm wide and keeled. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils on a peduncle 1.5–2.5 mm long but often appear clustered on side-branches. There are bracteoles 1.5–2.8 mm long at the base but fall off as the flowers open. The sepals are about 0.9 mm long and 1–2 mm wide and the petals are yellow, more or less round and about 2 mm in diameter. There are 5 stamens, the filaments about 0.8 mm long. Flowering occurs in January or from April to November.

Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1873 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Thriptomene flaviflora in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected by Ernest Giles in the MacDonnell Ranges. In 1926, John McConnell Black transferred the species to the genus Micromyrtus as M. flaviflora. The specific epithet (flaviflora) means "yellow-flowered".

Distribution and habitat
Micromyrtus flaviflora is widespread and common in desert, growing on red, sandy dunes and plains mainly in inland Western Australia, but also in adjacent areas of the Northern Territory and South Australia.