Leucopogon

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Leucopogon
Leucopogon parviflorus 3.jpg
Leucopogon parviflorus
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: Styphelieae
Genus: Leucopogon
R.Br. [1]
Synonyms [1]
List

Leucopogon is a genus of about 150-160 species of shrubs or small trees in the family Ericaceae, in the section of that family formerly treated as the separate family Epacridaceae. They are native to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the western Pacific Islands and Malaysia, with the greatest species diversity in the south-west of Western Australia. Plants in this genus have leaves with a few more or less parallel veins, and tube-shaped flowers usually with a white beard inside.

Contents

Description

Plants in the genus Leucopogon range from prostrate shrubs to small trees. The leaves are arranged alternately and usually have about three, more or less parallel veins visible on the lower surface. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets either singly or in spikes of a few to many flowers. There is a single egg-shaped to circular bract and a pair of similar bracteoles at the base of each flower immediately below the five sepals. The sepals are similar to the bracts but larger. The petals are fused to form a tube with the five petal tips rolled back or spreading, usually with a beard of white hairs inside. The stamens are attached to the tube near its tip and have a short filament and the tip of the style is thin. The fruit is a drupe. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Taxonomy and naming

The genus Leucopogon was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus . [6] [7]

In 2005, following cladistic analysis, in a paper published in Australian Systematic Botany , Christopher John Quinn and others transferred some species previously known as species of Leucopogon to other genera, including AndrostomaHook.f., AcrotricheR.Br., AcrothamnusQuinn and AgiortiaQuinn. These species include the former L. colensoi, L. milliganii, L. maccraei, L. montanus. These, and other changes proposed have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census ("APC") but not the change of L. melaleucoides to Acrothamnus melaleucoides. [8] [9]

Further molecular phylogenetic analysis of Styphelia and related genera by Crayn and others in 2018 have led to further proposed changes, not yet assessed by the APC as at April 2020. These changes include moving 75 species of Leucopogon to Styphelia. [10]

The genus name, Leucopogon is derived from ancient Greek words meaning "white" and "beard", referring to the petal tube. [11] [12]

Species list

The following is a list of species accepted by the Plants of the World Online as at April 2021: [13]

Related Research Articles

<i>Prostanthera</i> Genus of plants

Prostanthera, commonly known as mintbush or mint bush, is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae, and all are endemic to Australia. Plants are usually shrubs, rarely trees with leaves in opposite pairs. The flowers are arranged in panicles in the leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets. The sepals are joined at the base with two lobes. The petals are usually blue to purple or white, joined in a tube with two "lips", the lower lip with three lobes and the upper lip with two lobes or notched.

<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>Pimelea</i> Genus of flowering plants

Pimelea, commonly known as rice flowers, is a genus of plants belonging to the family Thymelaeaceae. There are about 150 species, including 110 in Australia and 36 in New Zealand.

<i>Persoonia</i> Genus of shrubs and small trees in the family Proteaceae

Persoonia, commonly known as geebungs or snottygobbles, is a genus of about one hundred species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Plants in the genus Persoonia are shrubs or small trees usually with smooth bark, simple leaves and usually yellow flowers arranged along a raceme, each flower with a leaf or scale leaf at the base. The fruit is a drupe.

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

Patersonia, is a genus of plants whose species are commonly known as native iris or native flag and are native to areas from Malesia to Australia.

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

Olearia, most commonly known as daisy-bush, is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Asteraceae, the largest of the flowering plant families in the world. Olearia are found in Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. The genus includes herbaceous plants, shrubs and small trees. The latter are unusual among the Asteraceae and are called tree daisies in New Zealand. All bear the familiar daisy-like composite flowerheads in white, pink, mauve or purple.

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

Isopogon, commonly known as conesticks, conebushes or coneflowers, is a genus of about forty species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, and are endemic to Australia. They are shrubs with rigid leaves, bisexual flowers in a dense spike or "cone" and the fruit is a small, hairy nut.

<i>Bossiaea</i> Genus of legumes

Bossiaea is a genus of about 78 species of flowering plants in the pea family Fabaceae and is endemic to Australia. Plants in this genus often have stems and branches modified as cladodes, simple, often much reduced leaves, flowers with the upper two sepal lobes larger than the lower three, usually orange to yellow petals with reddish markings, and the fruit a more or less flattened pod.

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

Acrotriche is a genus of about 18 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, occurring in all states of Australia except the Northern Territory. Plants in the genus Acrotriche are shrubs with hairy branchlets, leaves with more or less parallel veins and small flowers with 5 sepals and petals joined at the base to form a bell-shaped to cylindrical tube with hairs and stamens in the throat.

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

Lasiopetalum, commonly known as velvet bushes, is a genus of about forty-five species of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae, all endemic to Australia.

<i>Daviesia</i> Genus of plants

Daviesia, commonly known as bitter-peas, is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, and is endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus Daviesia are shrubs or small trees with leaves modified as phyllodes or reduced to scales. The flowers are arranged singly or in groups, usually in leaf axils, the sepals joined at the base with five teeth, the petals usually yellowish with reddish markings and the fruit a pod.

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

Spyridium is a genus of about thirty species of flowering plants in the family Rhamnaceae, and is endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus Spyridium are shrubs or subshrubs usually with small leaves, flowers usually in clusters of small composite heads, the individual flowers small and densely woolly-hairy, and the fruit a capsule. Species of Spyridium are found in all Australian states except Queensland.

<i>Lepidosperma</i> Genus of grass-like plants

Lepidosperma is a genus of flowering plant of the family Cyperaceae. Most of the species are endemic to Australia, with others native to southern China, southeast Asia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand.

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

Styphelia is a genus of shrubs in the family Ericaceae, native from Indo-China through the Pacific to Australia. Most have minute or small leaves with a sharp tip, single, tube-shaped flowers arranged in leaf axils and with the ends of the petals rolled back with hairs in the inside of the tube.

<i>Lissanthe</i> Genus of shrubs

Lissanthe is a genus of about 10 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus Lissanthe are small, erect to spreading shrubs with egg-shaped to oblong leaves. Up to 17 bisexual flowers are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of branches, the 5 petals joined at the base to form a cylindrical to urn-shaped tube with triangular lobes.

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

Brachyloma is a genus of about 16 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus Brachyloma are shrubs with more or less erect leaves and bisexual flowers usually arranged singly in leaf axils, the 5 petals fused to form a cylindrical or bell-shaped tube, the stamens sometimes enclosed in the petal tube.

References

  1. 1 2 "Leucopogon". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  2. Powell, Jocelyn M. "Leucopogon". Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  3. Powell, Jocelyn M.; Walsh, Neville G.; Brown, Elizabeth A. "Leucopogon". Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  4. "Leucopogon". State Herbarium of South Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  5. "Leucopogon". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  6. Brown, Robert (1810). Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. London: typis R. Taylor et socii. p. 541. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  7. "Leucopogon". APNI. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  8. Quinn, Christopher J.; Brown, Elizabeth A.; Heslewood, Margaret M.; Crayn, Darren M. (2005). "Generic concepts in Styphelieae (Ericaceae): the Cyathodes group". Australian Systematic Botany. 18 (5): 439–454. doi:10.1071/SB05005.
  9. "Leucopogon". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  10. Crayn, Darren M.; Hislop, Michael; Puente-Lelièvre, Caroline (2020). "A phylogenetic recircumscription of Styphelia (Ericaceae, Epacridoideae, Styphelieae)". Australian Systematic Botany. 33 (2): 137–168. doi:10.1071/SB18050.
  11. Francis Aubie Sharr (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings. Kardinya, Western Australia: Four Gables Press. p. 92. ISBN   9780958034180.
  12. Les Robinson - Field Guide to the Native Plants of Sydney, ISBN   978-0-7318-1211-0 page 108
  13. "Leucopogon"". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 22 April 2024.