Levenhookia pulcherrima, the beautiful stylewort is a dicotyledon

Dicotyledon

The dicotyledons, also known as dicots, are a group of flowering plants whose seed typically has two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. There are around 199,350 species within this group...

ous plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 that belongs to the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Levenhookia

Levenhookia

Levenhookia, also known as the styleworts, is a genus of ten recognized species in the family Stylidiaceae and is endemic to Australia. The genus is restricted to Western Australia almost exclusively with a few exceptions: L. pusillas range extends into South Australia, L. dubias range extends...

(family Stylidiaceae

Stylidiaceae

The family Stylidiaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It consists of five genera with over 240 species, most of which are endemic to Australia and New Zealand. Members of Stylidiaceae are typically grass-like herbs or small shrubs and can be perennials or annuals...

). It is an ephemeral

Ephemeral Plant

An ephemeral plant is one marked by short life cycles, usually six to eight weeks. The word ephemeral means transitory or quickly fading. In regards to plants, it refers to several distinct growth strategies...

 annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 that grows on average from 7 to 8 cm tall. Lower leaves are spathulate

Leaf shape

In botany, leaf shape is characterised with the following terms :* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...

 while upper leaves are oblanceolate and up to 1.8 cm long. Stems and older leaves are red. Flowers are pink to rose-coloured with the shorter anterior petals about 3 mm long. The sensitive labellum

Labellum

Labellum is the Latin diminutive of labium, meaning lip. These are anatomical terms used descriptively in biology, for example in Entomology and botany.-Botany:...

 is obovate and white with a circular grey-purple mark on either side of the terminal portion. Both leaves and stems of L. pulcherrima possess more glandular trichome

Trichome

Trichomes are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants and certain protists. These are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae.- Algal trichomes :...

s than in other Levenhookia species. When describing this new species, Sherwin Carlquist

Sherwin Carlquist

Sherwin Carlquist is an American botanist and photographer. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1952 and a Ph.D. in botany in 1956, also at Berkeley. Carlquist did a postdoctoral study at Harvard University from 1955 to 1956. After his postdoctoral...

 noted that it is most closely related to L. preissii

Levenhookia preissii

Levenhookia preissii, Preiss's stylewort, is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the genus Levenhookia . It is an ephemeral annual that grows about 15 cm tall with oblanceolate to linear leaves. Flowers are pink to red and bloom from September to January in its native range. L...

and L. pauciflora

Levenhookia pauciflora

Levenhookia pauciflora, the deceptive stylewort, is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the genus Levenhookia . It is an ephemeral annual that grows from 5 to 10 cm tall with ovate to suborbicular leaves. Flowers are white and bloom from September to November in its native range. L...

, which might place it with those species in section Levenhookia

Levenhookia sect. Levenhookia

Levenhookia sect. Levenhookia is a section of two to three recognized species in the family Stylidiaceae. Section Levenhookia was originally described by Mildbraed as section Eulevenhookia, which was later changed to the current section title Levenhookia as an autonym since it is the type section....

, but Carlquist neglected to specifically say so. He also noted that several features of this species, including its corolla lobe, labellum, throat appendage, and stigma morphology, are distinctly different from those species with which it appears to be associated. L. pulcherrima is endemic to southwestern Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

.