Verticordia halophila

Verticordia halophila, commonly known as salt-loving featherflower or salt-loving verticordia, is an erect, bushy shrub in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae) endemic to southwest Western Australia. It grows 30–75 cm tall and 45–70 cm wide, with main stems and short, leafy side-branches. The leaves on side branches are crowded, oblong to egg-shaped, thick, and covered with soft hairs less than 0.1 mm long. Flowering stems have broadly egg-shaped to almost round leaves. The scented flowers are arranged in spike-like groups near the ends of long flowering stems, each on a short stalk (0.5–1.0 mm long). The floral cup is top-shaped, smooth, and glabrous with 5 ribs and small bent green appendages. Sepals are pink with a white fringe, 4–5 mm long, with hairy lobes and ear-shaped appendages. Petals are mauve-pink, erect, 3.5–4 mm long, with coarse teeth on the top edge. The style is curved, 5–5.5 mm long, with short hairs near its purple tip. It flowers from September to December. Verticordia halophila is distinguished by its thick, crowded leaves, serrated petal edges, purple-tipped style, and saline habitat. First described by Alex George in 1991, it belongs to subgenus Eperephes, section Verticordella. An isolated population was redescribed as Verticordia elizabethiae in 2020. It grows in sand and clay on slightly saline flats and salt lake edges in woodland and shrubland. Found near Coorow, Marchagee, and Lake Seabrook in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains regions, its range originally included Coolgardie bioregion until a 2020 revision separated it as Verticordia elizabethiae. This ...