Dodonaea aptera

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title: "Dodonaea aptera" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["dodonaea", "endemic-flora-of-western-australia", "rosids-of-western-australia", "sapindales-of-australia", "taxa-named-by-friedrich-anton-wilhelm-miquel", "plants-described-in-1845"] description: "Species of flowering plant" topic_path: "geography/australia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodonaea_aptera" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Species of flowering plant ::

|taxon = Dodonaea aptera |authority = Miq. |synonyms_ref = |synonyms = Dodonaea sororia Miq.

Dodonaea aptera, commonly known as coast hop-bush, is a species of plant in the family Sapindaceae and is endemic to coastal areas of the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect to spreading shrub with simple, usually elliptic leaves, flowers arranged in cymes or panicles and more or less spherical capsules with four lobe-like wings.

Description

Dodonaea aptera is a dioecious, erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 3.5 m. Its leaves are simple, usually elliptic, 22–60 mm long and 10–32 mm wide on a petiole 4–10.5 mm long. The flowers are borne on the ends of branches in cymes or panicles, each flower on a pedicel 3–7 mm long, with four lance-shaped sepals 2.5–3 mm long, but that fall off as the flowers open. There are eight stamens and a glabrous ovary. Flowering mainly occurs from April to July, and the fruit is a more or less spherical, egg-shaped or broadly oblong capsule, 5–6 mm long and 6–7 mm wide, with lobe-like wings 0.5–1 mm wide.

Taxonomy

Dodonaea aptera was first formally described in 1845 by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae, based on specimens collected in 1839 at Garden Island, Rottnest Island, and Arthurs Head in Fremantle. The specific epithet (aptera) means 'without a wing'.

Distribution and habitat

This species of Dodonaea grows in coastal areas of the south-west of Western Australia on limestone cliffs or shallow sand over limestone between Shark Bay and Cape Freycinet.

Conservation status

Dodonaea aptera is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

References

References

1. "''Dodonaea aptera''". Australian Plant Census.
2. {{FloraBase
3. "''Dodonaea aptera''". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra.
4. "''Dodonaea aptera''". Australian Plant Name Index.
5. (1845). "Plantae Preissianae". Sumptibus Meissneri.
6. (2021). "Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings". Four Gables Press.

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