Westringia rigida

Westringia rigida R.Br. (Lamiaceae), stiff westringia, is a compact evergreen shrub endemic to arid and semi-arid inland Australia, occurring across South Australia, western New South Wales, southern Northern Territory, Victoria and Western Australia. Plants form low, much-branched, rigid shrubs 30-100 cm tall, with crowded stiff stems bearing dense whorls of three to four narrow, sharply pointed needle-like leaves 5-15 mm long. The leaves are dark green and minutely hairy above, paler and densely woolly beneath, with strongly revolved margins concealing the lower surface, an adaptation to xeric conditions. Small two-lipped flowers about 8-12 mm long are borne singly in the upper leaf axils, with a white to pale mauve corolla marked with orange or purplish spots on the throat and a hairy calyx. The fruit is a cluster of four small dry nutlets enclosed within the persistent calyx. It typically grows on stony hills, calcareous loams and chenopod shrublands of the southern Australian interior.