Styphelia leptospermoides

Styphelia leptospermoides is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect, bushy shrub with elliptic to lance-shaped or oblong leaves, and white, tube-shaped flowers usually arranged singly in upper leaf axils.

Description
Styphelia leptospermoides is an erect, bushy shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.6–1 m, and has softly-hairy branchlets. The leaves are more or less erect, elliptic to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, or oblong, 8.5–12 mm long and 1.5–2.2 mm wide on a petiole 0.3–0.4 mm long. The leaves are glabrous and the lower surface is finely striated. The flowers are arranged singly in upper leaf axils with white bracteoles 1.2–1.9 mm long at the base. The sepals are 2.3–3.1 mm long, the petals joined at the base to form a tube 1.6–2.4 mm long with lobes 1.2–2.8 mm long. Flowering mainly occurs from September to November and the fruit is a glabrous, oval drupe 3.3–4.0 mm long.

Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown who gave it the name Leucopogon leptospermoides in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. In 1824, Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel transferred the species to Styphelia as S. leptospermoides. The specific epithet (leptospermoides) means "leptospermum-like".

Distribution and habitat
Styphelia leptospermoides grows in coastal heath and open woodland in Queensland to as far south as Hawks Nest on the north coast of New South Wales.