Platysace lanceolata



Platysace lanceolata, commonly known as shrubby platysace, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is small, upright shrub with variable shaped leaves and white flowers.

Description
Platyscace lanceolata is an upright or widely spreading shrub to 1.5 m with stems usually covered in short, soft hairs. The leaves are a dull green, narrow to broadly elliptic, occasionally more or less circular, arranged alternately, 10-50 mm long and 4-15 mm wide, smooth margins, base heart-shaped, and the apex pointed or rounded. The inflorescence has cream-white flowers in an umbel 15-50 mm in diameter, bracts elliptic or linear in shape, 2-7 mm long, and on a peduncle 5-30 mm long. Flowering occurs from September to March and the fruit 1.5-2 mm long, 1.5-2.1 mm wide and warty.

Taxonomy and naming
The species was first formally described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805 in the first volume of Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen and given the name Azorella lanceolata. The species was transferred to the genus Platysace in 1917 by English botanist George Claridge Druce and the description was published in The Botanical Exchange Club and Society of the British Isles Report for 1916, Suppl.2

Distribution and habitat
This platysace is a common, widespread species found growing in heath, scrub, open forests, and sometimes sandy situations in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.