Stylidium edentatum
Encyclopedia
Stylidium edentatum 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...

 Stylidium (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 annual plant
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 around 6 cm tall. The elliptical
Leaf shape
In botany, leaf shape is characterised with the following terms :* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...

 leaves form a basal rosettes
Rosette (botany)
In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a single height.Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem.-Function:...

 around the stem. The leaves are around 0.3-0.8 mm long with recurved margins. Inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s are produced on solitary scapes
Scape (botany)
In botany, scapes are leafless flowering stems that rise from the ground. Scapes can have a single flower or many flowers, depending on the species....

 and bear flowers that are white with rose-coloured markings at the base of the corolla lobes and two tooth-shaped throat appendages present. S. edentatum was a previously overlooked species that is related to and appears similar to S. calcaratum
Stylidium calcaratum
Stylidium calcaratum, the book triggerplant, is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the genus Stylidium . It is an ephemeral annual that grows from 5 to 10 cm tall but can grow larger at 20–30 cm tall in damp forest or scrub habitat. The few ovate leaves produced by this plant form...

and S. ecorne
Stylidium ecorne
Stylidium ecorne is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the genus Stylidium . It is an annual plant that grows from 5 to 12 cm tall. It has pale or bright pink flowers and occurs in swampy areas.- Taxonomy :S...

. Allen Lowrie
Allen Lowrie
Allen Lowrie is a West Australian botanist. He is living in Duncraig, a Perth suburb, is married and has two daughters.Lowrie, originally a businessman and inventor, got in contact with the carnivorous flora of western Australia in the late sixties and worked on it as an amateur...

 and 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...

 described this species in 1989 and argued that if S. ecorne is considered distinct from S. calcaratum, then certainly S. edentatum warrants placement at the species level. It differs from S. calcaratum and S. ecorne by the long petioles
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...

 on its recurved leaves, and the cuneate, obtuse, and unlobed posterior corolla lobes. They also have a distinctive lateral toothlike appendage at the base of each posterior corolla lobe. S. edentatum 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...

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