Hedraianthera porphyropetala is a bush or small tree found in eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. A member of the Bittersweet family

Celastraceae

The Celastraceae , is a family of about 90-100 genera and 1,300 species of vines, shrubs and small trees, belonging to the order Celastrales...

, and the only member of Hedraianthera genus.

It grows in littoral or sub-tropical rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

 north of Ballina, New South Wales

Ballina, New South Wales

Ballina is a town on the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia, and the seat of the Ballina Shire Local Government Area. It had a population of 16,477 in the 2006 Census.-Location:...

 to Cooktown in tropical Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. Found in gullies or rocky slopes on shallow soils, sometimes enhanced by basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

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The generic name Hedraianthera is from the Greek referring to the flower anthers without stalks. The specific epithet porphyropetala is also from the Greek language, and alludes to the attractive deep purple coloured flowers. They are an unusually southern example of cauliflory

Cauliflory

Cauliflory is a botanical term referring to plants which flower and fruit from their main stems or woody trunks rather than from new growth and shoots. This can allow trees to be pollinated or have their seeds dispersed by animals which cannot climb or fly...

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