Stylidium leptorrhizum 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 herbaceous 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 from 8 to 25 cm tall. Oblanceolate

Leaf shape

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

 or elliptical leaves, about 10-20 per plant, form a basal rosette

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:...

 with stems

Plant stem

A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...

 absent. The leaves are generally 14–60 mm long and 3-9.5 mm wide. This species produces 1-3 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....

 per plant. 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 8–25 cm long and produce pink or mauve flowers that bloom from May to August in their native range. S. leptorrhizum is endemic to the Kimberley region of 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...

 and the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

. Its typical habitat has been reported as sandy soils along creeks or billabong

Billabong

Billabong is an Australian English word meaning a small lake, specifically an oxbow lake, a section of still water adjacent to a river, cut off by a change in the watercourse. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end...

s. S. leptorrhizum is most closely related to S. multiscapum

Stylidium multiscapum

Stylidium multiscapum is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the genus Stylidium . It is an herbaceous annual plant that grows from 10 to 20 cm tall. Oblanceolate leaves, about 8-100 per plant, form a basal rosette with stems absent. The leaves are generally 22–52 mm long and...

. When reviewing section Debilia

Stylidium sect. Debilia

Stylidium section Debilia is a taxonomic rank under Stylidium subgenus Tolypangium. In his 1908 monograph on the family Stylidiaceae, Johannes Mildbraed had established this section as Debiles. In 1999, A.R...

, Tony Bean reduced the recently described S. barrettorum to synonymy

Synonym (taxonomy)

In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...

 with S. leptorrhizum after examining the type specimen

Biological type

In biology, a type is one particular specimen of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached...

.