Tetratheca bauerifolia

Tetratheca bauerifolia, commonly known as heath pink-bells, is a flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a small compact shrub with pink-mauve flowers.

Description
Tetratheca bauerifolia is a small shrub to 30 cm high with angled or needle-shaped stems covered with bristly, short, curved or curled hairs usually less than 0.5 mm long. The leaves are oval to narrow-elliptic shaped, arranged in whorls of 4-6 along the branches, usually 4-10 mm long, 2-3 mm wide and sessile. The flowers are borne mostly singly on a hooked peduncle, the petals mauve-pink and 6-10 mm long with darker, hairless sepals that are 1.5-2 mm long. Flowering occurs from September to November and the fruit is heart-shaped to more or less wedge shaped and 5-8 mm long.

Taxonomy
Tetratheca bauerifolia was first formally described by Victorian Government Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1853 and the description was published in Synopsis Tremandrearum.

Distribution and habitat
Heath pink-bells grows mostly at higher altitudes in eucalypt forests in rocky locations south of Hill End in New South Wales. A widespread species in eastern Victoria usually in rocky locations or in open forests.