Thysanotus tenuis is a species of flowering plant in the Asparagaceae family, and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a clumping perennial herb with a tuberous roots, three or four terete annual leaves, and panicles of purple flowers with elliptic, fringed petals, linear to narrowly lance-shaped sepals, six stamens and a straight to curved style.
Description Thysanotus tenuis is a perennial herb with a small rootstock and tuberous roots, the tubers long and wide. There are three or four more or less terete annual leaves long and hairy on the lower edges. The flowers are borne in branched panicles about long, with umbels of one or two flowers each on a pedicel long. The flowers are purple, with perianth segments about long, the sepals linear to narrowly lance-shaped, wide, the petals elliptic, about wide with a fringe about long. There are six stamens of two different lengths and the style is straight to slightly curved, about long. Flowering occurs in September or October and the seed is more or less spherical, about long in diameter with an straw-coloured aril.
Taxonomy Thysanotus tenuis was first formally described in 1838 by John Lindley in Sydenham Edwards Botanical Register from specimens collected by Robert Mangles in 1837. The specific epithet (tenuis) means 'thin', 'narrow' or 'delicate'.
Distribution and habitat This species of Thysanotus grows in clayey or sandy loam soils in depressions in low woodland near Wagin and Wickepin in the Avon Wheatbelt and Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status Thysanotus tenuis is listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.
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