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This delightful little shrub
comes to life in winter, producing an
abundance of crimson flowers at a time when few other plants are in flower.
Look for Styphelia tubiflora on poor sandy soils, usually
in heaths and dry sclerophyll Eucalyptus woodlands on
sandstone ridges and hillsides. Although sometimes
quite abundant, its distribution is limited, from Sydney
south to Jervis Bay and westward to the Blue Mountains.
In the past Styphelia tubiflora would have been
classified as a member of the Epacridaceae plant family,
known fondly, and proudly, as Australian Heaths. Now molecular biologists tell
us that it is more appropriately included in the Ericaceae, a predominantly
northern hemisphere family, well known for the heaths of Europe and North
America and the Rhododendrons of Asia. Most Australian heaths (Epacris,
Woollsia, Leucopogon, Trochocarpa, for example) are now considered to belong
to the Subfamily Styphelioideae of the Ericaceae. It is the genus name
Styphelia which gives its name to the new subfamily. So Styphelia could be
regarded as the type genus. The Styphelioideae (over 400 species in 35 genera)
are abundant in southern Australia with greatest diversity in the south-west
of Western Australia and south-eastern Australia; others occur in New
Zealand, the islands of the south-west Pacific and south-east Asia. Even Tierra
del Fuego, the southernmost limit of South America, hosts one genus,
Lepetanthus.
World-wide distribution of Ericaceae, Subfamily Styphelioideae
In Australia, our Australian Heaths generally grow on acid, nutrient
poor soils, often in heaths and swamps, from the coast to alpine areas. Most
have associations with mycorrhizal fungi which facilitate extraction and uptake
of nutrients from infertile soils.
Leaves are often small, hard,
leathery, and often sharp tipped. We often,
incorrectly, refer to the pattern of
venation in their leaves as parallel, a
characteristic of monocots, typically
grasses, rather than dicots. However, the
venation is more appropriately referred to
as palmate: several veins diverge from the
centre of the base of the leaf then appear
to run parallel with each other along the
leaf. This is often a useful identification
characteristic for the family when flowers
are not present.
Plantnet: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Styphelia~tubiflora
Maps modified from: Australian Native Plant Society (Australia): http://anpsa.org.au/epacris1.html
Alison Downing, Brian Atwell, Kevin Downing
Department of Biological Sciences, July 2015
Note the palmate (parallel) leaves in this illustration of "Styphelia-tubiflora"
by James Sowerby (1757-1822, artist and naturalist)
Australian National Botanic Gardens [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia
Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stypheliatubiflora.jpg#/media/File:Styphelia-tubiflora.jpg