Brush Heath

Appearance

"Brachyloma ericoides" is an erect or spreading shrub that usually grows to 20–60 cm high and has softly-hairy branchlets. The leaves are linear to narrowly elliptic, 4–13 mm long and 0.7–1.5 mm wide on a petiole 0.7–1.1 mm long. The leaves are more or less glabrous and the lower surface is paler than the upper surface. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils with broadly egg-shaped to round bracts 6–17 mm long and bracteoles 1.3–3 mm long at the base. The sepals are egg-shaped, 2.8–4.3 mm long and the petals are pink, sometimes white, and joined to form a tube 3.5–5 mm long with lobes 2.0–2.7 mm long. Flowering occurs between April and November, and the fruit is a more or less spherical drupe 3.5–5 mm long.

Naming

This species was first formally described 1854 by Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal, who gave it the name "Lobopogon ericoides" in the journal Linnaea. In Otto Wilhelm Sonder transferred the species to "Brachyloma" as "B. ericoides".

In 1982, Robert John Bates described two subspecies of "B. ericoides", and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
⤷  "Brachyloma ericoides" subsp. "bicolour" has leaves 10–16 mm long, pale green bracteoles, sepals and petal tube, and bright orange-yellow petal lobes.
⤷  "Brachyloma eridoides" subsp. "ericoides" has leaves 5–12 mm long, pink bracteoles, sepals and petal tube, and pink to reddish petal lobes.

Distribution

"Brachyloma ericoides" gows in sandy soils, or with limestone. "Brachyloma ericoides" subsp. "ericoides" is found in western Victoria and south western South Australia, but species "bicolor" only occurs on Kangaroo Island.