A spreading shrub to about 1.5 m tall. Leaves 3-6 mm long, cupped,widest above the middle. Flowers on short stalks, pink; spring. Calyx tube wrinkled, sepals broad and round-tipped. Petals longer than the calyx lobes.
Listed cultivars include 'Mingenew' and 'Seatonii'.
WA.
T. calycina (Lindl.) Stapf, Grampians Thryptomene, is similar with white flowers that are pink in bud, but has sepals and petals that are similar in size and shape. (For its development as a cut flower crop see Beardsell 1995). T. denticulata (F. Muell.) Benth is an erect shrub to about 2 m tall with toothed sepals, while T. baeckeacea F. Muell. has strongly keeled, 3-angled leaves.
Source: (2002). Myrtaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Thryptomene saxicola 'F.c. Payne'
Hardly distinguishable from parent species but said to be more floriferous. A cultivar that has been in the trade since at least the 1960s. ['Paynei']
Thryptomene saxicola 'Pink Lace'
Has a more compact growth form and deeper flower colour than the species. Released in 1988.