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Richea sprengelioides is an alpine shrub from the heath family, endemic to Tasmania, where it grows in mountain and subalpine areas. It is a species rather than a commonly grown garden plant, so most care points below are general guidance for related Richea species.
Richea sprengelioides is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae. It is one of the 11 species within the genus Richea that are endemic to Australia, of which 9 are found only in Tasmania.
The species was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in 1810 in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae. He gave it the name Cystanthe sprengelioides.[2] In 1867 Victorian Government Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller transferred the species to the genus Richea.
Richea sprengelioides is found throughout the mountainous regions of west, south-west, north-east and the central plateau of Tasmania. It is most common in alpine areas where is most often encountered growing as a small bush within the dominant shrub layer, this, however, does vary with exposure and it can be found growing in a much reduced form within alpine herbfields. At lower altitudes it is sometimes seen growing in exposed rocky sites and less often within well drained woodland. The flowers are sought out and eaten by a number of mammal species.
Dracophyllum acerosum · Tarahinau · Dracophyllum cockayneanum · Dracophyllum densum · Grass Tree · Dracophyllum filifolium · Fiordland grass tree · Fitzgerald Tree · Dracophyllum kirkii · Needle Leaved Neinei · Gumland Grass Tree · Inaka
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Richea sprengelioides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
