About Philotheca angustifolia (Paul G.Wilson) Paul G.Wilson
Philotheca angustifolia, commonly called narrow-leaf wax flower, is a shrub that reaches a height of 0.3 to 2 meters (1 foot 0 inches to 6 feet 7 inches). Its stems are covered in warty glands, with a small number of hairs located in the grooves between leaf axils. The leaves of this species are cylindrical, club-shaped, or egg-shaped, and are stalkless. They are covered in glandular warts, measure 2 to 10 millimeters (0.079 to 0.394 inches) long, and are 1 to 2 millimeters (0.039 to 0.079 inches) wide. Flowers are produced singly or in groups of up to four at the ends of branchlets, with each flower sitting on a pedicel 0.5 to 4 millimeters (0.020 to 0.157 inches) long. This species has five triangular sepals, each about 1 millimeter (0.039 inches) long, and five egg-shaped white petals 5 to 8 millimeters (0.20 to 0.31 inches) long, most often with a pink stripe along the midline. There are ten stamens total, each bearing a small white appendage on the anther; stamens positioned closer to the sepals have an awl-shaped tip. Narrow-leaf wax flower grows in open woodland and mallee habitats. Subspecies angustifolia is found in central Victoria and south-eastern South Australia, with only one known record from 1882 in southern New South Wales. Subspecies montana occurs only in mountainous regions of western Victoria.
