Prickly Guinea-flower
Habit
Flinders Ranges
Prickly Guinea-flower
Buds
 
                      
Prickly Guinea-flower (Hibbertia exutiacies)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida)
Order: Guinea-flowers (Dilleniales)
Family: Dillenia (Dilleniaceae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Prickly Guinea-flower (Hibbertia exutiacies)
This Photo:     New Leaves
Other name: Spiky Guinea-flower

Thank you Alan Dandie (Alan_Dandie) for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Flinders Ranges, Adelaide Hills, Coastal Areas and possibly elsewhere
These little bushes are a ray of sunshine in spring
The flowers drop their petals very easily, leaving discussion and quandry in their wake as one tries to work out this new green flowering plant
LOL
The yellow flowers are ~15mm wide, with the pale green buds at just over 2mm.
The flowers can vary in general appearance with the 5 petals being close together forming a buttercup flower appearance, or spread apart looking like a star.
Counting the petals isn't easy with petals often overlapping, yet each one having an indent in the end making it appear to be 2 petals close together.
The green, nearly cylindrical leaves have a sharp spike on the end (hence prickly) and are ~8mm long. They are adjacent, often in swirls of 5 leaves (ie about 70 deg apart), with fine teeth along the edge.

Copyright © 2016-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 08-Oct-2016
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.