Darwinia

Darwinia is a genus of the family Myrtaceae, consisting of about 30-60 species of evergreen shrubs, endemic in southeast and southwest Australia.

Most comes from the south of Western Australia, but some species occur in South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. The genus is named Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin.

The species of Darwinia grow 20-300 cm tall, and some of the creeping species (the smaller). The leaves are put into pairs decussados (or alternate in some species), simple, small, acicular to oval, 40-20 mm long, often hard and leathery texture.

The flowers have to be solitary or grouped, are 20-30 cm long, with five petals red, white or greenish, with ten stamens. Difficult to spread by seed, growing it is easy for cutting.

Many species of this genus are endangered and are listed as "endangered" or state "vulnerable" on National List of Australian Threatened Flora. Some practices of clearing and farming have reduced considerably the areas of natural distribution of species.

The ecological recovery has been hindered due to drought, changes in natural fire regimes and due to infection by oomycetes such as Phytophthora cinnamomi responsible for the death of plants.



Source: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia

See Also: International Flower Delivery, Florist