About Styphelia viridis Andrews
Styphelia viridis Andrews is an erect or straggly small shrub that grows no taller than 1.8 metres (6 ft), and is usually much shorter. Its branchlets are stiff and covered in very fine, white hairs. Its leaves match the form of other styphelias: they are lance-shaped, 12–29 millimetres (0.5–1 in) long, 2.9–7.6 millimetres (0.1–0.3 in) wide, and taper to a fine point. The leaf stalk is 1–2 millimetres (0.04–0.08 in) long; the leaf blade is flat, glabrous, and marked with parallel veins. The flowers are translucent bottle-green. The sepals are green, glabrous, and 8.5–16 millimetres (0.3–0.6 in) long. Petals are fused into a tube 14–23 millimetres (0.6–0.9 in) long, with petal ends rolled backward to expose the hairy inner surface of the tube. The stamen filaments and the style both extend well beyond the petal tube, and each measures around 10–16 millimetres (0.4–0.6 in) long. The anthers are brown and an additional 3.2–6.3 millimetres (0.1–0.2 in) long. Flowering takes place from April to August, and is followed by fruit that is a flat-topped, five-sided greenish-red drupe. This species grows on the coast and ranges of New South Wales and southern Queensland, in heath and dry sclerophyll forest on sandy soils.
