SPECIES: Tetratheca gunnii — Shy Pinkbells, Shy Susan
CLASSIFICATION: Critically endangered
This little beauty is Shy Pinkbells, sometimes known as Shy Susan. It’s a delicate flowering shrub, with flowers of a pale lilac to pink in colour. Shy Pinkbells now makes the critically endangered list, thought to be less than 100 mature plants left in the wild. Shy Pinkbells is naturally a rare plant anyway, and the population left is found in the foothills of the Dazzler Ranges near Beaconsfield, Tasmania.
Shy Pinkbells relies on native bees for pollination and is under threat from Phytophtora dieback, fire and land clearing. Seed collecting in the Ranges in which it grows is becoming more imporant than ever, however this in itself requires accurate timing before seeds fall off each plant.
Photo: Royal Tasmanian Botanica Gardens, Flickr.