Darwinia fascicularis is shrub in the myrtle family and is endemic to areas near Sydney. A small shrub with aromatic foliage and white flowers, turning red as they mature. Nectar feeding birds are attracted to its flowers as a food source.
Description
Darwinia fascicularis is a pleasantly scented small plant up to tall. The light green needle-like leaves are small, smooth, almost cylindrical and long. The leaves are crowded, arranged opposite or whorled on spreading branches. The flowers are white on a peduncle long. The flowers resemble a pin-cushion appearing in clusters of 4-20 flowers at the end of branches turning red as they age. The prominent styles are straight or curved, long and either white or red. The bracts are leaf-like or triangular, dry, translucent and about long. The smaller bracts may be oblong or triangular shaped, long and falling off early. The tubular flowers are long and in diameter with rounded ribbing. The sepals are usually toothed and triangular and about half the length of the petals. Flowering occurs from June to September.
Darwinia fascicularis subsp. oligantha was first formally described in 1962 by Barbara Briggs and published in Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium. This species usually has only 4 flowers, rarely 2 or 6 and only appearing in pairs. A small shrub growing to about high with branches often growing horizontally along the ground and upturned at the tip. The branches will take root when in contact with the soil. Leaves are less crowded and a darker green. It grows at higher altitudes in the Blue Mountains to Wentworth Falls in New South Wales in heath or on shallow sandstone soils. The epithet is derived from the ancient Greekoligos meaning "few" or "scanty" and -anthus meaning "-flowered", in reference to the few flowers in each inflorescence.
Darwinia fascicularis subsp. fascicularis is an erect shrub to high and has flowers of 4-20 in a tight cluster. The branches do not take root when in contact with the soil. It grows from Gosford in the Central Coast to Bulli near Wollongong within of the coast. Grows in exposed situations on the edge of sandstone ridges, mostly in heathland or dry sclerophyll scrub below.
Distribution and habitat
Darwinia fascicularis grows from as far north as Gosford in the Central Coast to Bulli near Wollongong. The habitat is poor sandy soils, in dry eucalyptus forest or heathlands in high rainfall areas.
Uses in horticulture
Darwinia fascicularis is a hardy species, for an open sunny situation in well-drained soil. Several native birds are attracted to this species of Darwinia as a source of nectar they include the New Holland honeyeater, tawny-crowned honeyeater and eastern spinebill. This genus believed to be predominantly pollinated by birds.
