Hibbertia spicata

Hibbertia spicata is an erect to spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 70 cm (28 in), its older stems covered with papery bark. The leaves are linear, mostly 12–25 mm (0.47–0.98 in) long and 1.2–2.0 mm (0.047–0.079 in) wide with the edges rolled under, sometimes obscuring the hairy lower surface. The flowers are crowded along a cincinnus of eight to fourteen flowers, all but the lowest with two bracts at the base. The five sepals are egg-shaped, 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long and the five petals are yellow, 7.5–8 mm (0.30–0.31 in) long and egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base. There are six or seven stamens fused at the base on one side of the two softly-hairy carpels, and ten to fourteen staminodes arranged around the carpels, each carpel with two ovules. Flowering occurs from April to October.[2][3]

Hibbertia spicata was first formally described in 1860 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected at Port Gregory by Pemberton Walcott and Augustus Frederick Oldfield.[4][5] The specific epithet (spicata) means "spicate".[6]

In 1984, Judith Roderick Wheeler described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

• Hibbertia spicata subsp. leptotheca K.R.Thiele[7] has few, or no staminodes, and the outer two sepals more or less glabrous;[2]
• Hibbertia spicata F.Muell. subsp. spicata[8] has six to twelve staminodes and the outer two sepals are hairy.[2]

Subspecies leptotheca grows on near-coastal limestone between Lancelin and the Yalgorup National Park and subspecies spicata grows in a variety of soils in heathland on the Darling Range.[2][9]

• List of Hibbertia species