Prostanthera ferricola

Prostanthera ferricola is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to central Western Australia. It is an erect, openly branched shrub with aromatic, egg-shaped leaves and mauve-purple flowers arranged in four to twelve leaf axils near the end of branchlets.

Description
Prostanthera ferricola is an erect, openly branched shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3-1 m and has cylindrical, densely hairy, glandular branchlets. The leaves are egg-shaped, strongly aromatic when crushed, 5.5–10 mm long and 1.5–2.5 mm wide on a petiole 0.5–1 mm long. The flowers are arranged singly in four to twelve leaf axils near the ends of branchlets, each flower on a pedicel 0.7–1.5 mm long. The sepals form a tube 2.5–3 mm long with two lobes, the lower lobe green or faintly purple and 5–6 mm long, the upper lobe purple-mauve and 11–13 mm long. The petals are mauve-purple, 18–20 mm long and form a tube 15–18 mm long with two lips. The lower lip has three lobes, the centre lobe egg-shaped, 5–6 mm long and 9–10 mm wide and the side lobes 5.5–6 mm long and 4–4.5 mm wide. The upper lip is broadly egg-shaped, 6.5–7 mm long and 8–9 mm wide and deeply divided into two lobes. Flowering occurs from July to September.

Taxonomy
Prostanthera ferricola was first formally described in 1987 by Barry Conn and Kelly Anne Shepherd in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected in the Robinson Ranges in 2006.

Distribution and habitat
This mintbush grows in sparse Acacia aneura shrubland in the Murchison and Gascoyne biogeographic regions of Western Australia.

Conservation status
Prostanthera ferricola is classified "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.