National Recovery Plan for the Matted Centrolepis (Centrolepis Caespitosa)
Sandra Gilfillan and Sarah Barrett
Interim Recovery Plan No: 159
Department of Conservation and Land Management, January 2004
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- Matted centrolepis (Centrolepis caespitosa) interim recovery plan 2004-2008 (PDF - 178 KB) | (RTF - 4.8 MB)
About the document
D.A. Cooke described Centrolepis caespitosa in 1980 (Cooke 1980) from a collection made by Alexander Morrison in 1904 from Beenup [Beenyup] in the Byford area. At the time of description the species was known only from the holotype and in 1991 was declared as Rare Flora and ranked as Presumed Extinct. In 1992 Cooke (Cooke 1992) reported that he had identified a collection of the species made from south of the South Stirling town site by Greg Keighery in 1976. The species was transferred from extinct to extant on CALM's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List in 1994 (Atkins 1994).
Two new populations of the species were recorded during the Floristic Survey of the southern Swan Coastal Plain in 1994 (Gibson et al. 1994).
Currently, the species is known from eight populations over a wide area between the South Coast, Perth and Meckering.
Centrolepis caespitosa is a diminutive, densely tufted, glabrous annual herb. The leaves are red or green, slender and 5-10 mm long. These form a dense clump or cushion up to 2 cm in diameter. The inflorescences, which are cylindrical and held on the ends of the branchlets, do not extend beyond the leaves and are enclosed by two red/brown bracts, of which the outer has a long leaf like extension 2 to 4 mm long. Typically, the inflorescence contains a single flower consisting of a stamen, ovary, and style. The single flowered inflorescence distinguish this species from dwarf centrolepis (Centrolepis humillima), which has 2-5 flowers in each head (Brown et al. 1998).
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