Verticordia acerosa

Verticordia acerosa
Verticordia acerosa growing near Lake King
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Myrtales
Family:	Myrtaceae
Genus:	Verticordia
Subgenus:	Chrysoma
Section:	Chrysoma
Species:	V. acerosa
Binomial name
Verticordia acerosa Lindl.

Verticordia acerosa is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with yellow flowers which change colour through red to almost black as they age. There are two varieties which vary in their leaf shape, their flower colour and some of the structures in the flower.

Verticordia acerosa is a shrub which grows to a height of about 1.0 m (3 ft) and has a single, branching stem. The leaves on the lower part of the stem are linear in shape, pointed, 7–16 mm (0.3–0.6 in) long and dished or almost circular in cross-section. The leaves near the flowers are lance-shaped to egg-shaped or almost circular. The flower-cup is top-shaped, 1.0–1.5 mm (0.04–0.06 in) long, glabrous, covered with small lumps and has 10 ribs. The petals are shaped like fingers on a hand, 3–4 mm (0.1–0.2 in) and yellow, turning to red. Flowering time is from August to November, from September in southern parts of the plant's range.

The species was first formally described by John Lindley in 1839 and the description was published in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony. The specific epithet (acerosa) is a Latin word meaning "full of chaff".

There are two varieties:

When Alex George reviewed the genus Verticordia in 1991, he placed this species in Subgenus Chrysoma, Section Chrysoma along with V. citrella, V. subulata, V. endlicheriana.

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