Stenanthemum arens

Stenanthemum arens is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to South Australia. It is a twiggy shrub with broadly egg-shaped to almost circular leaves and heads of 10 to 20 silky-hairy white, tube-shaped flowers, usually with whitish floral leaves.

Description
Stenanthemum arens is a twiggy shrub, its young stems covered with soft or shaggy, greyish or rust-coloured hairs. Its leaves are broadly egg-shaped with the narrower end toards the base, or almost round, 4–7 mm long and wide on a petiole 1–2 mm long, with narrowly triangular to linear stipules 2–4 mm long at the base. Both surfaces of the leaves are covered with greyish, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are often folded lengthwise. The flowers are borne in groups of 10 to 20 up to 10 mm wide with bracts 1.5–2.5 mm long and surrounded by whitish flower leaves. Each flower is on a shaggy-hair pedicel up to 0.2 mm long. The floral tube is 0.9–1.2 mm long and 1.2–1.5 mm wide, the sepals 1.2–1.4 mm long and the petals 0.7–0.8 mm long. Flowering has been observed in July, and the fruit is 2.2–3.0 mm long.

Taxonomy and naming
Stenanthemum arens was first formally described in 2007 by Kevin Thiele in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens from specimens collected by John Carrick in 1969. The specific epithet (arens) means "dry or parched", referring to the appearance of the plant as well as its habitat.

Distribution and habitat
This species grows on rocky hills in the north-west Gawler Ranges of South Australia.