Citation: Fenzl, in Endl., Enum. Pl.Hügel 24 (1837).

Derivation: Greek spyridion, a little basket; the flowerheads are surrounded by leafy bracts.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Spyridiums.

Description:
Shrubs, usually small, but some species reach 1 m or more in height, more or less hairy; leaves shortly petiolate, stipules usually persistent.

Flowers small (2-3 mm), sessile in heads or clusters, rarely solitary or twin, surrounded by persistent brown bracts; each head usually subtended by a spreading floral leaf arising from the branchlet or the rhachis on which the head is seated, the heads often united into compound heads with several floral leaves; sepals 5, persistent; petals 5, small, hood-shaped, enclosing the anthers, claws of petals and filaments inserted between the lobes of the disk; floral tube not or scarcely extended beyond the ovary and the disk; disk annular, more or less lobed, usually close above the ovary; ovary inferior, 3-celled, pubescent at the summit; style entire or minutely 3-lobed

Capsule small, surmounted by the persistent sepals and the disk, separating into 3 or fewer (by abortion) coriaceous or membranous 1-seeded fruitlets, with or without a ventral suture along the inner face; seed ovoid, dorsally compressed, with a crustaceous testa; funicle dilated into a cup-shaped aril at the base of the seed.

Distribution:  A genus of about 30 endemic species; in the south-west province of and southern eremaean W.Aust., spreading east to Tas. and southern and south-eastern N.S.W.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Leaves generally broad in relation to length, ovate, obovate or oblong, entire (but may be notched in S. coactifolium), not revolute
2. Flowerheads cymose, sessile in the fork between 2, stalked heads
3. Leaves obovate
4. Leaves glabrous above, silky or golden-pubescent below	S. spathulatum 10.
4. Leaves with dense shiny appressed indumentum on both surfaces	S. nitidum 6.
3. Leaves ovate-orbicular or ovate-oblong
5. Leaves with nerves impressed above	S. parvifolium 7.
5. Leaves with raised reticulate nerves above	S. phlebophyllum 8.
2. Flowerheads dense, compound, not arranged as above
6. Leaves subacute, glabrous above	S. thymifolium 12.
6. Leaves very obtuse or notched
7. Leaves obovate, obcordate to triangular, truncate or 3-toothed at the apex	S. tridentatum 13.
7. Leaves very obtuse or notched, softly hairy above	S. coactilifolium 2.
1. Leaves generally narrow in relation to length, recurved to revolute
8. Flowers (and leaves) hoary with short stellate hairs; floral leaves similar to stem leaves	S. subochreatum 11.
8. Flowers silky with rather long simple hairs; floral leaves similar or not to stem leaves
9. Leaves cuneate-notched, or 2-lobed, softly-hairy all over
10. Leaves linear-cuneate, more or less deeply 2-lobed at the summit; heads globular, woolly-white	S. bifidum 1.
10. Leaves oblong-cuneate, with 2 short obtuse parallel or divergent lobes; heads dense, not globular	S. halmaturinum 4.
9. Leaves entire, margins revolute, the undersurface often concealed and the leaf appearing deeply grooved below
11. Leaves mucronulate
12. Floral leaves glabrous, no broader than the stem leaves	S. eriocephalum 3.
12. Floral leaves white-velvety, broader than the stem leaves
13. Leaves 3-6 mm long, erect, narrow-linear, mucro recurved; heads sessile	S. leucopogon 5.
13. Leaves 5-15 mm long, spreading or spreading-erect; mucro more or less straight; heads sessile or stalked
14. Leaves narrowly oblanceolate, midrib deeply impressed above	S. vexilliferum 14.
14. Leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, scarcely furrowed above	S. phylicoides 9.
11. Leaves not mucronulate, obtuse, linear
15. Leaves not furrowed above; heads globular, white-woolly	S. bifidum 1.
15. Leaves slightly furrowed above; heads dense, not globular	S. halmaturinum 4.

Author: Not yet available