Diocirea microphylla
Diocirea microphylla
Diocirea microphylla is a small shrub in the figwort family, endemic to a tiny area north of Coolgardie, Western Australia. It has thin branches and very small leaves pressed against the stems.
Description:
- Size: up to about 0.8 metres tall and 1.6 metres wide.
- Branches: very thin, less than 1 mm in diameter.
- Leaves: tiny, 1.5–2 mm long and about 1 mm wide; egg-shaped, pressed to the stem and resinous.
- Flowers: borne singly in leaf axils, without a stalk. Five green sepals fused at the base. White or pale violet petals form a short tube 1.5–2.5 mm long with lobes about the same length and purple spots near the base. The tube is mostly hairless except for a few hairs on the bottom lobe. Four stamens extend slightly beyond the tube.
- Fruit: cone-shaped, dark brown, smooth (glabrous), about 2 x 1.5 mm.
Taxonomy and naming:
- Described by Bob Chinnock in 2007 in Eremophila and allied genera: a monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae.
- The name microphylla means small leaves in Greek.
Distribution and habitat:
- Occurs in a small area north of Coolgardie in the Coolgardie biogeographic region.
- Grows in woodland on clay loam.
- Known from only a few populations, but in some places it forms a continuous ground cover with thousands of plants.
Conservation:
- Classified as Priority Three by Western Australia’s Department of Parks and Wildlife: poorly known and known from only a few locations, but not under imminent threat.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 21:58 (CET).