Kingdom Plantae Family Proteaceae Rank Species | Order Proteales Genus Stirlingia | |
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Stirlingia simplex is a plant endemic to Western Australia.
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Description
A woody perennial, S. simplex can grow as a shrub or as suckering herb with short-lived stems arising from a perennial rootstock. Stems may be up to ten centimetres long, and the plant as a whole grows to a height of from ten to 60 centimetres, rarely to one metre. It has soft leaves that bifurcate repeatedly into lobes, with the final lobes measuring from two to twenty millimetres long. Flowers are cream or yellow, and occur in dense heads from ten to 15 millimetres in diameter, atop scapes up to 60 centimetres tall.
Taxonomy
The species was first published by John Lindley in his 1839 A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony, based on unspecified material. Lindley commented that it "resembles a Sanicula".
Since that time, it has had a fairly straightforward taxonomic history. It has only two synonyms:
Distribution and habitat
It occurs throughout much of the Southwest Botanic Province of Western Australia, from Eneabba in the north, south to Waroona and east to Hyden. It grows in a variety of soils, amongst proteaceous-myrtaceous heath and eucalypt woodland, and prefers seasonally wet areas.
Ecology
It is not considered threatened.