Thank you to Nuytsia@Tas on Flickr for another wonderful photograph (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Much appreciated!

The Australian genus Boronia has recently been the subject of taxonomic scrutiny. Marco Duretto of the Tasmanian published a paper in 2003, “Notes on Boronia (Rutaceae) in eastern and northern Australia” (Muelleria 17:19-135), that described several new species, including Boronia hippopala or velvet boronia. It seems like the taxonomic investigation was well overdue; in Tasmania alone, the number of taxa leaped from six to fifteen (see: Some Giant Steps for Threatened Boronias pp. 18-20 PDF). Of these nine taxa, one seems to have been a range expansion of a taxon known from elsewhere in Australia, one was a re-recognition of a previously-described species that had since been lumped together with another species, and the remaining seven taxa had never previously been described.

Members of the citrus family, or Rutaceae, boronias have some typical qualities of the family: evergreen woody shrubs with fragrant flowers. Your chances of sampling the scent of velvet boronia (and mine) are quite limited though; other than the few plants in cultivation, Boronia hippopala grows in a small woodland and scrubland area of eastern Tasmania measuring no longer than 7km (4.3 miles) at its widest. This factsheet on Boronia hippopala (PDF) contains more detailed information about the species, including description, ecology and threats. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin    Source

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