SPECIES: Calectasia cyanea — Blue Tinsel Lily
CLASSIFICATION: Critically endangered
You are forgiven if you have never heard of the Blue Tinsel Lily or the Star of Bethlehem. It’s a perennial undershrub endemic to the south-west of WA. It couldn’t get much worse for this native plant, it’s now restricted to just one population of no more than 200 plants.
This Lily has large star-shaped blue-purple flowers with six petals, fading to white with age and a yellow centre, turning orange-red with age. Threats to the remaining plants are dieback and grazing by kangaroos. At this point, the wild population is critical to the survival of the species.
Photo: Geoff Derrin - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44...