Verticordia eriocephala

Verticordia eriocephala
File:Vertwheatbelt.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Myrtales
Family:	Myrtaceae
Genus:	Verticordia
Species:	Verticordia eriocephala A.S. George

Verticordia eriocephala is a woody shrub that occurs in Western Australia. The name is given for wooly appearance of the flowerheads, taken from the Greek, erion and cephale, and has also been commonly referred to as Lambswool, and Common, Native or Wild Cauliflower.

The shrub is erect and may attain a height of 2 metres, spreading from the main stem from 150 mm to 1.5 m across. The species may flower after attaining a height of only 100 mm. The flowers are white to creamy, form tight arrangements of 'corymb-like' groups, and are scented. The leaves are 3–4 mm long, becoming shorter and broader near the flowering parts at the top. The flower's sepals are 2-2.5 mm long, with the slender cilia extending out 3.8 mm, a creamy white colour. These contrast with the white petals, and the overall hairiness of ciliated structures supply the wooly appearance across the crown of the plant. Flowering may begin in June to September, finishishing in January.

It occurs in yellow, grey, and white sands, and on gravel being widespread throughout the sand hills and plains. It occasionally occupies granite sites, and is often seen growing with other Verticordia. It is most successful in mallee or heath shrubland of the eastern side, but is known to occur in open woodland or the arid sand plains of the southwest Botanic Province.

The plant is similar in appearance to Verticordia brownii, and was placed in the same section of the genus, Verticordia sect. Corymbiformis, when it was first described by A.S. George in 1991.

Early collection of the species occurred in the 1890s, by Richard Helms and more reliably, by William Vincent Fitzgerald in 1898. For many years it was incorrectly described as Verticordia brownii. The type specimen for Verticordia eriocephala was collected by Alex and Elizabeth George. The leaves are shorter and wider than that of cogenor Verticordia polytricha, and is distinguished from this species and Verticordia capillaris by the extent of hairiness in the flowering structures.