Ptilotus exiliflorus is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae and is endemic to the west of Western Australia. It is an annual plant with several more or less prostrate stems becoming glabrous as they age, hairy leaves, and green or white, oval or cylindrical spikes of flowers.
Description Ptilotus exiliflorus is an annual plant with several more or less prostrate stems that become glabrous as they age. The leaves at the base of the plant and on the stems are long and wide, hairy at first, but become glabrous. The flowers are borne in green or white, oval or cylindrical spikes with densely arranged flowers. There are hairy, colourless bracts long and bracteoles long with an obscure midrib. The tepals are mostly long, the inner tepals with a tuft of hairs on the inner surface. The style is long, straight and centrally fixed to the ovary. The seed is dull brown and long.
Taxonomy In 1870, George Bentham described Ptilotus humilis var. parviflorus in his Flora Australiensis. In 2012, Robert Wayne Davis raised the variety to species status as Ptilotus parviflorus but that name was illegitimate because the name is preoccupied by Ptilotus parviflorus (Lindl.) F.Muell. Davis raised the new name P. exiliflorus R.W.Davis for the species. The specific epithet (exiliflorus) means 'slender flowered', referring to its narrower flowers compared to the similar P. humilis.
Distribution This species of Ptilotus grows in the Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains, Murchison and Yalgoo bioregions of western Western Australia.
Conservation status Ptilotus exiliflorus is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
See also List of Ptilotus species
References