Hypocalymma sylvestre commonly known as Chittering myrtle, is a species of flowering in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to a restricted part of the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub, with broadly egg-shaped to heart-shaped leaves, and pale yellow flowers with 100 to 200 stamens in several rows.
Hypocalymma sylvestre is a spreading shrub that typically grows up to high and wide. Its leaves are broadly egg-shaped to heart-shaped, long, wide and usually V-shaped in cross section. The leaves are hairy and dotted with many small oil glands. The flowers are in diameter, and often arranged in pairs with bracteoles long at the base. The floral tube is wide and the sepals are very broadly egg-shaped, long and wide. The petals are pale yellow, long and there are 100 to 200 pale yellow stamens, the longest filaments about long. Flowering mainly occurs from August to October, and the fruit is a capsule long and in diameter.[1] [2] [3]
Hypocalymma sylvestre was first formally described in 2003 by Arne Strid and Greg Keighery in the Nordic Journal of Botany from specimens collected near Chittering in 1998.[4] The specific epithet (sylvestre) means 'pertaining to woods' or 'growing wild'.
Chittering myrtle is found in woodland and on lateritic hilltops in powderbark wandoo in an area centred around Chittering in the south-west of Western Australia, where it grows in sandy-loamy soils.
Chittering myrtle is listed as "Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.[5]