Teucrium junceum



Teucrium junceum is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a scrambling, openly-branched shrub, with small leaves, white flowers and orange to red fruit.

Description
Teucrium junceum is an openly-branched, scrambling shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2 m and has glabrous stems that are square in cross-section. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, narrow-elliptic or lance-shaped, 3–18 mm long, 2–3 mm wide but often scale-like or shed from older stems. The flowers are borne on a pedicel about 3 mm long with scale-like bracts 0.5–1.5 mm long. The five sepals are 1.5–2.5 mm long, the petals white and 3–4 mm long. Flowering mainly occurs in summer and the fruit is an orange to red drupe 2–4 mm in diameter.

Taxonomy
This germander was first formally described in 1847 by Allan Cunningham in Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers' Repertorium Botanices Systematicae, and was given the name Spartothamnus junceus. In 2016, Stefan Kattari and Günther Heubl changed the name to Teucrium junceum in the journal Taxon.

Distribution and habitat
Teucrium junceum grows in dry forest, including dry rainforest. It is widespread in eastern Queensland, south from near Mount Surprise to near Camden in New South Wales.

Conservation status
Teucrium junceum is listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.