Ruth has looked after today’s write-up:
Many thanks to Nuytsia@Tas @ Flickr for sharing today’s photograph via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool (original image) .
This little creeper, commonly known as carpet heath, has hard and tough leaves that are tiny in size: a maximum of 5 mm long by 2 mm wide. The flowers are white in colour and honey-scented. The fruits are berry-like, enveloping five or more small nutlets, and take two seasons to ripen. Pentachondra pumila‘s preferred habitat is referred to as a cushion bog, but other habitats it may be found in include sod-tussock grasslands and alpine herb-fields.
Pentachondra pumila is found in Australia and New Zealand. If researching Pentachondra online, you’ll find that it and its close southern hemisphere cousins are sometimes placed in the Epacridaceae. However, recent molecular evidence reveals that the Epacridaceae should be sunk into the Ericaceae, and this is reflected in modern taxonomic treatments.
Wow, just wow. You never fail to imrpess with your overwhelmingling fantasticly super pictures. I love plants and I love BPotD.
Neat, a succulent heather I guess.
What a fabulous picture! Take me to the Antipodes!
Cute as a button – and look at those charming flowers!
Ericeaeids are so cool! Bogs in Cape Breton, the bog across the road, the top of Mt. Washington; these guys hang out in all my favorite places. Antipodes here I come!
That’s another one for the lumpers!
Are those purple plummy-looking things the fruits?
The lovely frilly flowers remind me a bit of the water plant Nymphoides indica.
george in vermont is correct
i used to live in new england
mount washington indeed
lovely pictures love traveling the
world with you ruth
Can’t top the other posts – charming little flowers and such a good photo.
Funny thing is, I was expecting a fruiting plant before I even clicked through to the photo. I was basing that on a mistaken impression that the epithet “pumila” had something to do with fruiting. Instead it refers to the dwarf size of a species. I love how the frilly edges of the flowers make them look pixillated in the photo.
Stunningly exquisite, thank you so much for this little beauty.