rosy rice flower

Pimelea rosea is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1 m (1 ft 0 in – 3 ft 3 in) and has more or less glabrous stems. Its leaves are narrowly elliptic to egg-shaped, 6–30 mm (0.24–1.18 in) long and 1.5–5 mm (0.059–0.197 in) wide on a short petiole. The edges of the leaves are turned down or rolled under and the lower surface is a paler shade of green than the upper surface. The flowers are pale pink to reddish-purple and are arranged in erect clusters surrounded by 4 green, egg-shaped involucral bracts 8–19 mm (0.31–0.75 in) long and 6–10.5 mm (0.24–0.41 in) wide. The bracts are green with a yellowish to reddish base. The floral tube is 9.5–15 mm (0.37–0.59 in) long and the sepals 2.5–4.0 mm (0.098–0.157 in) long, the stamens shorter than the sepals. Flowering mainly occurs from September to December.

Subspecies rosea grows on sand dunes, coastal limestone and granite outcrops in woodland with tuart, and in winter-wet places, in near-coastal areas between Lake Pinjar and Cheyne Beach in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia. Subspecies annelsii has a more inland distribution, growing in woodland, usually with marri and jarrah between Mount Barker, the junction of the Hay and Mitchell Rivers, and Narrikup in the Jarrah Forest bioregion.