Verticordia tumida, commonly known as summer featherflower, is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the north-west of Western Australia. It is an open shrub with very small leaves and clusters of deep pink flowers from late spring to early winter.
Verticordia tumida is an open shrub with many side-branches and which usually grows to a height of 80sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1. The leaves are elliptic or egg-shaped, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and about 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide.[1]
The flowers are scented and arranged in short, spike-like groups near the ends of the branches, each flower on a spreading stalk NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The floral cup is top-shaped, about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and glabrous with thick green appendages NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The sepals are NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, spreading, deep pink with 5 or 10 feathery lobes. The petals are a similar colour to the petals, about 5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, with a fringe 2.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The style is about 4sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, curved near the tip and hairy. Flowering time is from late October to April, sometimes later.
Verticordia tumida was first formally described by Alex George in 1991 from a specimen collected near Tammin by Charles Gardner. The description was published in Nuytsia.[2] [3] The specific epithet (tumida) is a Latin words meaning "swollen"[4] referring to the appendages on the hypanthium.
George placed this species in subgenus Eperephes, section Verticordella along with V. halophila, V. pennigera, V. blepharophylla, V. lindleyi, V. carinata, V. attenuata, V. drummondii, V. wonganensis, V. paludosa, V. luteola, V. bifimbriata, V. mitodes, V. centipeda, V. auriculata, V. pholidophylla, V. spicata and V. hughanii.
There are two subspecies:
Subspecies tumida usually grows in sand, sometimes with loam and clay, in heath and shrubland and mainly occurs between Dowerin, Jitarning and Koolyanobbing. Subspecies therogana grows in sand, often with loam in heath and shrubland between Wickepin and the Peak Charles and the Fitzgerald River National Parks.
Both subspecies of V. tumida are classified as "Not Threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Subspecies therogana has been propagated from cuttings more easily than has subsp. tumida. It is also easier to maintain in the garden but not to the degree that it is available in commercial horticulture.