Adenanthos glabrescens
Adenanthos glabrescens is a species of small shrub endemic to the Ravensthorpe area in southwest Western Australia. First published in 1978, there are two subspecies. Description Adenanthos glabrescens grows as an erect shrub up to 70 cm in height. It has pinkish red or cream flowers, with a perianth tube about 22 mm long, and a style about 35 mm long. Leaves are usually entire and oval-shaped, but may rarely by lobed. They grow to 25 mm in length, and about 6 mm wide. The species is quite similar to A. dobsonii, but the leaves of A. dobsonii retain an indumentum of soft hairs both long and short, whereas those of A. glabrescens have an indumentum of short hairs only, which is soon lost. Taxonomy There are botanical collections attributable to this species dating back at least to 1924, but it was not until 1978 that Ernest Charles Nelson published the species in his comprehensive taxonomic revision of the genus. Nelson based the species on a type specimen collected by himself from a sand ridge on the western edge of Lake King in 1973, giving it the specific epithet glabrescens, from the botanical term "glabrescent", meaning "losing hairs"; this is