Conospermum patens Schltdl.

Conospermum patens Schltdl., commonly known as slender smokebush, is an erect shrub that typically grows up to around 1 metre (3 feet 3 inches) tall.

Branch and Leaf Features

Its branches are covered in soft, white hairs, and its leaves are crowded, widely spreading, and shaped either linearly or like a spatula. The leaves measure 1.5 to 46 millimetres long and 0.7 to 2.7 millimetres wide.

Inflorescence Structure

Flowers of this species are arranged in panicles that are mostly 10 to 40 millimetres wide, growing at the ends of branches or in upper leaf axils, on a peduncle 40 to 200 millimetres long. The species has egg-shaped bracteoles that are 2 to 5 millimetres long and 0.8 to 2.5 millimetres wide.

Perianth Characteristics

The perianth is white, bluish-grey, or purplish, and forms a tube 2.2 to 4.5 millimetres long. The upper lip of the perianth is egg-shaped, 2.5 to 3.5 millimetres long and 1.5 to 2.3 millimetres wide. The lower lip is joined for 1 to 2 millimetres, with oblong lobes 1 to 2 millimetres long and 0.3 to 0.9 millimetres wide.

Flowering Period and Fruit

Flowering occurs mostly from September to December, and the fruit is a hairy, yellowish-brown nut that is 1.8 to 2.3 millimetres long and 2.0 to 2.6 millimetres wide.

Habitat

Slender smokebush grows in heath, heathy woodland, and shrubland.

Distribution

It is distributed in western Victoria, Australia—specifically in the Grampians, the Little and Big Deserts, and near Casterton—and also on the southern Eyre Peninsula and in the lower south-east of South Australia.