Epacris rigida is a species of flowering plant in the familyEricaceae and is endemic to south-eastern New South Wales. It is an erect to spreading shrub with egg-shaped to more or less circular leaves and sweetly-scented, cream-coloured, tube-shaped flowers.
Description
Epacris robusta is an erect to spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.5–1 m (1 ft 8 in – 3 ft 3 in), its branchlets softly-hairy. Its leaves are egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, to more or less rhombic or circular, 4–8 mm (0.16–0.31 in) long and 3.2–6.5 mm (0.13–0.26 in) wide on a petiole 0.7–1.2 mm (0.028–0.047 in) long and curve downwards. The flowers are borne in groups near the ends of branches and are 6–7 mm (0.24–0.28 in) wide, each flower on a peduncle 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) long with bracts and bracteoles at the base. The flowers are sweetly-scented, the sepals 5.2–6.3 mm (0.20–0.25 in) long and the petals cream-coloured, joined at the base to form a tube 6.0–7.6 mm (0.24–0.30 in) long with lobes 2.5–2.9 mm (0.098–0.114 in) long. Flowering mostly occurs from August to December, and the fruit is a capsule about 2.5 mm (0.098 in) long.[2][3]
This epacris grows in heath or rocky slopes at altitudes above 800 m (2,600 ft) in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, but mainly south of the Tinderry Range.[2][3]
^Bentham, George; von Mueller, Ferdinand (1868). Flora Australiensis. London: Lovell Reeve & Co. p. 237. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
^Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 296. ISBN9780958034180.
