General Description:

The Australian Plant Census (APC) Records four species of Microcybe found in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria:

• Microcybe ambigua – Western Australia
• Microcybe albiflora – Western Australia
• Microcybe multiflora – Western Australia South Australia and Victoria
• Microcybe pauciflora – Western Australia and South Australia

All four species have been reclassified to the genus Phebalium by the Western Australian herbarium.  However, this change has not been adopted in South Australia or Victoria or in the APC (which ANPSA accepts as the authority on plant naming).

Microcybe multiflora is an erect up to about 1 metre high with terete branchlets. Two subspecies are recognised (subsp. multiflora, subsp. baccharoides). The small leaves are arranged alternately on the stems and are up to about 7 mm long and 1 mm wide with revolute margins. The white, five-petalled flowers occur in clusters at the ends of the branchlets in spring and summer.

Species of Microcybe are rarely seen in cultivation. M. multiflora  would be an attractive garden or container plant. It is best suited to Mediterranean climates (cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers) and would probably be difficult to establish in wetter, humid climates.  It would need well-drained sandy or gravelly soils in a sunny or lightly shaded position. Light pruning after flowering would help encourage denser growth and promote flowering.

Propagation from cuttings of firm, current seasons growth should be successful but may be slow to strike.  Seed, if available, can be expected to be difficult to germinate.