Archeria (plant)

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Archeria
Archeria racemosa - 2011 - BC Myles.jpg
Archeria racemosa on Little Barrier Island, New Zealand
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Subfamily: Epacridoideae
Tribe: Archerieae
Crayn & Quinn
Genus: Archeria
Hook.f.

Archeria is a small genus of shrubs in the family Ericaceae. As currently circumscribed the group includes six species, all native to southern Australasia. Four of these are endemic to Tasmania, and the other two endemic to New Zealand. [1]

Contents

It does not contain any economically important taxa, but due to their attractive small tubular flowers, reticulate leaf venation, and limited distribution, the shrubs have a long history of being admired by Australasian naturalists.

Species

Distribution

Archeria can be found scattered throughout south, west, north and central Tasmania, but is largely absent from the east. [2] In New Zealand the distribution is highly disjunct, with A. racemosa being found only in the northern North Island, and A. traversii being scattered locally throughout the South Island and Stewart Island. [3]

Ecology

Like most ericads, Archeria species are largely found on acidic soils. They grow at lowland to montane altitudes, although A. comberi and A. hirtella reach the sub-alpine in parts of their range. Five of the six species are found rather locally throughout shrublands and forests, while A.comberi is found in heaths, sedgelands, and wetlands.

Morphology

Habit The six species of Archeria are all self-supporting shrubs with dark coloured bark. Leaves They have simple, alternately arranged glabrous leaves, with margins that are entire or serrulate. The leaves are unique within the Styphelioideae, being the only genus in the group to have reticulate venation. [4] Inflorescence The flowers are pedicellate, and either in short terminal racemes or solitary and axillary towards the ends of the branches. Flowers and Fruits Flowers are 5-merous, with bracts and bracteoles that are often small and caducous. The ovary is deeply 5-lobed, with the style deeply inserted, nearly to the base. Capsules are loculicidally dehiscent, with many seeds, on basal or sub-basal placentae. [1] [3]

Evolutionary history

Based on morphology, and chloroplastic matK and rbcL DNA sequence data, Archeria is found to be nested within the subfamily Styphelioideae of the Ericaceae. The genus is sister to the rest of the subfamily, except for the tribe Prionoteae, which is sister to the rest of the subfamily and Archeria. [5] It is regarded as distinct enough, both in terms of morphological and molecular data, to warrant monotypic status within its own tribe, the Archerieae. [1]

Etymology

The genus was named by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1844 after the nineteenth century Tasmanian botanist William Archer. [3] [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ericaceae</span> Heather family of flowering plants

The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c. 4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers.

<i>Epacris</i> Genus of flowering plants in the heath family Ericaceae

Epacris is a genus of about forty species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. It was formerly treated in a closely related but separate family Epacridaceae, but the various genera within Epacridaceae including Epacris have been revised in their relationships to each other and brought under the common umbrella of the Ericaceae. The genus Epacris is native to eastern and southeastern Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand. The species are known as heaths or Australian heaths.

<i>Dracophyllum</i> Genus of flowering plants

Dracophyllum is a genus of plants belonging to the family Ericaceae, formerly Epacridaceae. There are 61 species in the genus, mostly shrubs, but also cushion plants and trees, found in New Zealand, Australia, Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia. The name Dracophyllum, meaning dragon-leaf, refers to their strong outward similarity to the unrelated Dracaena, sometimes known as dragon tree. Although dicotyledonous, they resemble primitive monocots with their slender leaves concentrated in clumps at the ends of the branches; they are sometimes called grass-trees.

Rupicola is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The species are endemic to New South Wales in Australia.

<i>Leptecophylla</i> Genus of flowering plants

Leptecophylla is a genus of flowering plants in the Epacridaceae family, a subfamily of Ericaceae. The genus is native to southeastern Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. Some species in this genus were formerly classified within the genera Cyathodes, Lissanthe, Styphelia and Trochocarpa.

<i>Archeria traversii</i> Species of flowering plant

Archeria traversii is a species of shrub in the family Ericaceae.

<i>Richea scoparia</i> Species of flowering plant

Richea scoparia is a species of plant endemic to Tasmania. The genus Richea, forms part of the Ericaceae family, which are commonly heath-like shrubs. The name refers to the erect bushy growth habit, described as a broom-like shrub, most commonly referred to as the honey bush or simply scoparia to many bushwalkers.

<i>Dracophyllum milliganii</i> Species of flowering plant

Dracophyllum milliganii is a species of angiosperm in the family Ericaceae and the sub-family Epacridoideae. It is a distinctive alpine shrub, endemic to western Tasmania.

Archeria comberi, also known as the pink mountain heath or comb heath, is a small, rare shrub endemic to Tasmania, Australia. As a member of the heath family, Ericaceae, this species is generally classified as a subalpine/ alpine species and shares many characteristics with other members of the family. It is an evergreen shrub 0.15m-1m in height, with pink flowers during the summer months, hence its common name pink mountain heath. Archeria comberi is often found growing among other species such as Nothofagus gunnii and Persoonia gunnii.

<i>Archeria eriocarpa</i> Species of flowering plant

Archeria eriocarpa is a species of shrub in the family Ericaceae. It is endemic to Tasmania, Australia.

<i>Archeria racemosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Archeria racemosa is a species of shrub in the family Ericaceae.

<i>Archeria serpyllifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Archeria serpyllifolia is a dense, compact, low growing shrub, that is endemic to Tasmania, Australia, inhabiting the undisturbed alpine areas of southern and south-west Tasmania. This plant is commonly referred to by Australasian naturalists as thyme archeria.

<i>Archeria hirtella</i> Species of flowering plant

Archeria hirtella is a species of shrub in the family Ericaceae. It is native to Tasmania, Australia.

<i>Prionotes</i> Genus of flowering plants

Prionotes is a genus of flowering plants endemic to Tasmania, with a single species, Prionotes cerinthoides. Commonly known as climbing heath, it is a temperate rainforest climber or a small scrambling shrub in the mountains. It usually lives in very wet, undisturbed places.

<i>Trochocarpa gunnii</i>

Trochocarpa gunnii, commonly known as sweet-scented trochocarpa or fragrant purpleberry, is a common rainforest understorey shrub from the plant family Ericaceae endemic to Tasmania.

<i>Dracophyllum traversii</i> Species of tree (mountain neinei)

Dracophyllum traversii, commonly known as mountain neinei, grass tree, and pineapple tree is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae. It is a deciduous tree endemic to New Zealand. It reaches a height of 0.2–13 m (0.66–42.65 ft) and has leaves which form tufts at the end of its branches. It has a lifespan of between 500 and 600 years.

<i>Dracophyllum muscoides</i> Species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae

Dracophyllum muscoides, commonly known as cushion inaka, is a small cushion plant in the family Ericaceae. It is endemic to New Zealand and is found only in the South Island in sub-alpine regions.

<i>Dracophyllum menziesii</i> Species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae

Dracophyllum menziesii, commonly known as pineapple scrub, is a species of shrub endemic to the South and Stewart Islands of New Zealand. In the heath family Ericaceae, it inhabits mountain slopes and cliffs from sea level up to 1,500 m (4,921 ft) and reaches a height of 0.5–1 m (1.6–3.3 ft). A 2017 assessment using the New Zealand Threat Classification System classified it as "Not Threatened," giving it an estimated population upwards of 100,000.

<i>Leptecophylla parvifolia</i> Tasmanian endemic plant

Leptecophylla parvifolia, commonly known as the mountain pinkberry, is a small to medium sized species of shrub in the family Ericaceae that is endemic to the highlands of Tasmania. This species was first collected and documented in 1804 by Robert Brown and was formerly included in the Cythodes genus. It was then as noted as subspecies of Leptecophylla junipernia but in 2018, was classified as its own species

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epacridoideae</span>

Epacridoideae is a subfamily of the family Ericaceae. The name StyphelioideaeSweet is also used. The subfamily contains around 35 genera and 545 species. Many species are found in Australasia, others occurring northwards through the Pacific to Southeast Asia, with a small number in South America.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Crayn, D.M., Quinn, C.J. 1998. Archerieae: a New Tribe in the Epacridaceae. Australian Systematic Botany11: 23-34.
  2. Atlas of Living Australia. Archived April 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Archeria Hook. f. Searched October, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Allan, H.H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand. Volume I: Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons. Government Printer, Wellington.
  4. Watson, L. 1962. The taxonomic significance of stomatal distribution and morphology in Epacridaceae. New Phytologist61: 36-40.
  5. Kron, K.A., Judd, W.S., Stevens, P.F., Crayn, D.M., Anderberg, A.A., Gadek, P.A., Quinn, C.J., Luteyn, J.L. 2002. Phylogenetic classification of Ericaceae: molecular and morphological evidence. Botanical Review68: 335-423.
  6. Eagle, A. 2006. Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand. Te Papa Press, Wellington.