Plants of
South Australia
Hibbertia sessiliflora
Dilleniaceae
Sessile Guinea-flower.
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Botanical art

Kath Alcock paintings: 2

Etymology

Hibbertia, named after George Hibbert (1757-1837), a London merchant who maintained a private botanic garden at Chelsea. Sessiliflor, from the Latin 'sessilis' meaning low or fixed and 'florus' meaning flower, referring to the many flowers along the stem. They appear to be sessile, as they are borne on very short stalks..

Distribution and status

Found in the south-east in South Australia, growing on winter-wet clay flats under scrub vegetation. Also found in Victoria. Native. Very rare in South Australia. Rare in Victoria.
Herbarium region: South Eastern
NRM region: South East
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Shrublets with erect to decumbent woody stems to 0.5 m long and with spreading hairy, wiry branches with internodes up to 2.3 cm long and reddish-brown becoming greyish. Leaves with axillary tuft of hairs, petiole to 0.6 mm long. Leaves linear-elliptic to rarely -lanceolate or elliptic, to 9.6 mm long and 3.2 mm wide, gradually constricted into blunt apex with tuft of simple hairs and into short petiole, discolorous, above convex and with scattered stellate hairs under simple hairs soon glabrescent, below with narrow to broader recurved to revolute margins well raised above the narrow central vein and stellate-tomentose with scattered longer simple hairs mainly on the central vein. Flowers mid to bright and deep yellow, sessile, terminal on mainly short shoot, often with only reduced leaves and 3 more densely-hairy bracts to 1.5 mm long, or up to a quarter of the calyx. Flowering between October and November. Fruits are brown capsule with 2 carpels; woolly, with styles each attached to the dorsal apex. Seeds are brown, globular seed to 2 mm diameter.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between December and February. Collect mature capsules, those that are turning a pale straw-colour and contain brown seeds. Place the capsules in a tray and leave to dry for one to two weeks. Then rub the capsules gently by hand to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate the unwanted material. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. This genus tend to have low seed viability. This species has morpho-physiological dormancy and can be difficult to germinate.