Eremaea is a genus of woody shrubs and small trees in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. Little study of the genus as a whole had been undertaken until Roger Hnatiuk researched Eremaea and published a paper in 1993, A revision of the genus Eremaea (Myrtaceae) in Nuytsia. The first species to be described was Eremaea pauciflora (as Metrosideros pauciflora) in 1837 and by 1964, the number of species known had increased to 12. Hnatiuk recognised 16 species, 5 subspecies and a number of varieties. Description Plants in the genus Eremaea are shrubs or small trees with small leaves that are arranged alternately on the stem and are dotted with oil glands. The flowers have both male and female parts and are solitary or in clusters of two or three on the ends of the branches. There are 5 sepals, and 5 petals which fall off as the flower matures. There are many stamens, all longer than the petals and usually arranged in groups of five. The stamens give the flowers their colour, which may be pink, deep pink, orange or violet. The fruit is a woody capsule containing one to six small seeds. Taxonomy and naming The genus Eremaea was first named and formally described in 1839 by John Lindley in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony in which he noted "Of this genus, which may be called Eremaea ... there are three species, of which the only pretty kind is E. fimbriata." (The species now known as Eremaea pauciflora had been described earlier but given the name Metrosideros pauciflora.) The genus Eremaea is closely related to Melaleuca, Beaufortia Regelia and several others, differing mainly in the way the anthers are attached to the stalks of the stamens, and in the way they open to release their pollen. Eremaea is most closely related to Regelia and Calothamnus as these groups have anthers that open by longitudinal slits or pores. Eremaea can be distinguished from Regelia by the number of flowers in the flowering heads - in Regelia the flowers are in dense heads, whereas in Eremaea they are solitary or in groups of two or three. Calothamnus species have longer leaves than both of these genera. In 2014, Lyndley Craven and others proposed, mainly on the basis of DNA evidence, that species in the genus Eremaea, along with those