Pimelea alpina

Description

Pimelea alpina, the alpine rice-flower, is a small shrub species in the family Thymelaeaceae. It is endemic to Southern Australia. It has a prostrate or erect habit, growing up to 30 cm in height. Leaves are 3 to 13 mm long and 1 to 3 mm wide, opposite, and crowded toward the ends of branchlets. Flowers which are pinkish red or rarely white, are clustered in groups of 5 to 18, the heads surrounded by 4 bracts. These are followed by 3 – 4 mm long green fruit. The species was first formally described in Prodromus in 1810, based on plant material collected in the Cobberas Range by Victorian Government Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller. It occurs in alpine and sub-alpine heath, tussock grassland and woodland in New South Wales and Victoria.