Styphelia ericoides

Styphelia ericoides, commonly known as the pink beard-heath, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a slender shrub with oblong leaves, and white to pinkish, tube-shaped flowers.

Description
Styphelia ericoides is a slender shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–2 m, its branchlets softly hairy. The leaves are oblong, sometimes elliptic, 3–15 mm long, 1.0–2.5 mm wide and sessile, the upper surface dished, often with the edges curved downwards, and with a small point up to 1 mm long on the tip. The flowers are white to pale pink and arranged on peduncles 1–3 mm long in upper leaf axils, forming a spike 3–9 mm long with egg-shaped bracteoles 1.0–1.5 mm long. The sepals are egg-shaped, 1.4–2.1 mm long, the petals joined at the base to form a tube 1.5–2.2 mm long, the lobes 1.4–2.0 mm long and softly-hairy inside. Flowering occurs from July to October and is followed by an often-curved oval drupe 2.4–5.7 mm long.

Taxonomy
Styphelia ericoides was first formally described by James Edward Smith in A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland. The specific epithet (ericoides) means "Erica-like".

Distribution and habitat
Pink beard-heath is widespread and common in south-east Queensland, the coast, tablelands and slopes of eastern New South Wales, southern Victoria, the far south-east of South Australia and Tasmania, where it grows in heath, forest and woodland.

Ecology
In the Sydney region, S. ericoides is associated with Sydney peppermint (Eucalyptus piperita), scribbly gum (E. sclerophylla) and narrow-leaved apple (Angophora bakeri). Plants live between five and twenty years, are killed by fire and regenerate from seed which lies dormant in the soil. Bees seek out the flowers for their nectar.