Beaufortia squarrosa, commonly known as sand bottlebrush,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. The Noongar peoples know the plant as buno.[3]
It is sometimes a dense shrub, others straggling with 4 neat rows of small, oval leaves along the stems, and heads of red, orange or yellow flowers in the warmer months.
Description
Beaufortia squarrosa is a shrub which grows to a height of about 2 metres (7 ft). The leaves are crowded and arranged in alternating pairs (decussate) so that they make four rows along the stems. The leaves are egg-shaped to oval, less than 4.5 millimetres (0.2 in) long and have 5 or 7 veins.[2][4][5][6]
The flowers are usually bright red but sometimes orange or yellow and are arranged in roughly spherical heads on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering. The flowers have 5 sepals, 5 petals and 5 bundles of stamens. The stamen bundles, which give the flower its colour, contain 3 to 7 stamens and are joined for more than half their length. Flowering occurs from July to December or from January to May and is followed by fruits which are woody capsules.[2][4][5]
^Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 670.
^Paczkowska, Grazyna; Chapman, Alex R. (2000). The Western Australian flora : a descriptive catalogue. Perth: Wildflower Society of Western Australia. p. 350. ISBN0646402439.