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Telopea 9(2): 2001 
Harperia eyreana B.G. Briggs & L.A.S. Johnson, sp. nov. 
A Harperia ferruginipes combinatione characterum sequentium distinguitur: habitus 
caespitosus; pili basales pallidi; culmi 1-1.5 mm diametro, ramosissimi flexuosique; 
vaginae basales glabrae; vaginae culmorum appressae. 
Type: c. 20 km SW of Cocklebiddy, Twilight Cove road, 32°11'S 126°03'E, 3 Dec 1993, 
S. Jacobs 7045 9 (holo NSW; iso K, MEL, MO, PERTH). 
Caespitose, forming large, dense or rather open, many-stemmed tussocks, 25-120 cm 
across. Rhizome pubescent with white or pale tan hairs; basal scales glabrous, scarious 
or hyaline, ovate, 0.5 cm long, + glossy. Culms erect or + spreading, terete, 35-120 cm 
tall, 1-1.5 mm diam., finely tuberculate, bright green, glabrous; intemodes numerous, 
1.5-4.5 cm long; repeatedly branched, the branches slender, highly flexuose. Culm 
sheaths: appressed, oblong, 7.5-12 mm long, red-brown, apex obtuse or truncate, often 
with soft, white axillary hairs projecting beyond the sheath, lamina 1.0-2.5 mm long. 
Spikelets usually solitary on branches; glumes glabrous, tan-brown. Male spikelets 
narrow-cylindrical, 5-8.5 mm long; glumes 1.4-3.0 mm long, 3-5 lower glumes rigid, 
broad-ovate, apex obtuse to obcordate, with a black mucro to 1.5 mm long; upper 
glumes 15-22, blunt, hyaline, ovate to oblong, not mucronate, only c. 5 uppermost 
subtending flowers. Female spikelets narrow ovoid-cylindrical, 6.5-8.5 mm long, 
1-flowered; glumes 5-7, narrow-ovate, acute, 1.8-5.0 mm long; mucro rigid, black, 
1.1-2.5 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 5, hyaline, filiform, 1.6-2.5 mm long; filaments 
c. 3 mm long; anthers 1mm long. Female flowers: tepals (4—)5, hyaline, narrow elliptic, 
obtuse, shed with the nut, 4.0-5.5 mm long. Nut narrow oblong, 3.5-4.5 mm long, pale 
brown, with a short thick stipe above the tepals. Seed oblong, c. 2.5 mm long. 
(Fig. la-ld.) 
The epithet commemorates Edward John Eyre who, despite great difficulties, in 1841 
first explored the region in which it occurs. This region was designated the Eyre 
botanical district by Diels (1906), but has subsequently been subdivided into several 
phytogeographic areas. 
Distribution: occurs in Western Australia south of Cocklebiddy. On deep white sand 
or calcareous loamy sand in tall shrubland of mallee eucalypts and Callitris. On crest 
and leeward side of white calcareous stabilised dune and on sand over limestone 
pavement. 
Conservation status: listed as Rare, Western Australian Department of Conservation 
and Land Management (CALM) code Priority 2 (P2) (Meney, Pate, Dixon, Briggs, & 
Johnson 1999). Known from very few localities in a very restricted area, but occurring 
in a nature reserve and in a remote region where the vegetation may not be subject to 
gross disturbance or clearing. 
The culms and spikelets of H. eyreana resemble those of H. ferruginipes but the former 
is distinguished by the caespitose habit; basal scales glabrous; basal hairs pale; culms 
more slender, more intricately branched and flexuose; culm sheaths appressed. H. 
ferruginipes has dark, ginger-brown hairs on its stout rhizomes and on basal scales, 
culms 1.5-2 mm diam., and culm sheaths that become lax with age (Fig. 1 e). 
Specimens examined: Western Australia: Eucla: 20kmSSW of Cocklebiddy along track to Twilight 
Cove, 4 Jan 1979, Crisp 4774 9 (CANB, NSW); 20 km SW of Cocklebiddy (details as for type) 7040 
8 (NSW), 7043 8 (NSW, PERTH), 7051 8 (NSW, CANB, PERTH), 7046, 7050 9 (NSW); 25 km SE 
of Cocklebiddy, 13 Dec 1986, Nezvby 11428 9 (PERTH, NSW); 36 km SE of Cocklebiddy on road to 
Eyre Bird Observatory, c. 19 km S of Hwy, 4 Dec 1993, Jacobs 7052 8, 7053 $ (NSW, AD, PERTH); 
19.7 km from Eyre Hwy on road to Eyre Bird Observatory, Nuytsland Nature Reserve, 26 Oct 1995, 
Johnstone 619 & Sweedman 9 (NSW, AD, CANB, K, MEL, MO, NBG, NY, PERTH, RSA). 
