Lysiphyllum cunninghamii

Last updated

Lysiphyllum cunninghamii
Bauhiniacunninghamii3831870421 060f1af5c5 o.jpg
Bauhinia cunninghamii 3832665112 db6cbb570a o.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Lysiphyllum
Species:
L. cunninghamii
Binomial name
Lysiphyllum cunninghamii
Lysiphyllacunninghamii1.png
Occurrence data from AVH
Synonyms [4]

Lysiphyllum cunninghamii (commonly known as the Kimberley bauhinia or the jigal tree) is a species of plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to northern Australia where it occurs from Western Australia through the Northern Territory to Queensland. [5]

Contents

Names

The specific epithet, cunninghamii, honours Allan Cunningham, who was the botanist on the third voyage of the Mermaid with Phillip Parker King, and who collected the type specimen of Phanera cunninghamii. [6] [7]

Jigal means mother-in-law and refers to the paired leaflets, which turn away from each other, as in Aboriginal customary law where mother-in-law and son-in-law may not face or interact with one another. [8] (See Avoidance speech, and Dixon (1991) for 'mother-in-law' or 'avoidance' language style.) [9]

Aboriginal language names

Jaminjung , Ngaliwurru , Nungali: Wanyarri (Ngal, Nung), Wayili (Jam). [10]
Jaru: gunji. [10]
Mangarrayi language, Yangman: Gamulumulu (Mang, Yang). [10]
Miriwoong: [11] Wanyarring [12]
Ngarinyman: Wanyarri. [10]
Wagiman: windinyin [10]

Description

It grows as a shrub or tree up to 12 m (occasionally up to 18 m) in height with grey fissured or tessellated bark. The inflorescences are axillary on old wood, [10] with its bright red flowers being seen from April to October, followed by large, reddish-brown seed pods from November to January. The nectar produced by the flowers attracts honeyeaters and native bees. [5] [13] The trees drop their leaves in the dry season, but new leaves often appear just before the onset of the rainy season. [8] The leaves have two lobes joined like butterfly wings. [14]

Distribution and habitat

It occurs on red alluvial sandy and loamy soils, often in watercourses and on levees, flood plains, pindan and the margins of monsoonal forests. It is found in the Central Kimberley, Dampierland, Gascoyne, Great Sandy Desert, Northern Kimberley, Ord Victoria Plain, Pilbara and Victoria Bonaparte, Katherine Region, IBRA bioregions. [5]

Taxonomy

Lysiphyllum cunninghamii was first described in 1852 as Phanera cunninghamii by George Bentham. [15] [16] The type specimen (BM000810756) was collected by Allan Cunningham in 1820 at Careening Bay in the Kimberley and is held in the British Museum. [7] In 1864, Bentham assigned it to the genus, Bauhinia, and it became Bauhinia cunninghamii, [17] [18] and in 1956, Hendrik de Wit redescribed it as belonging to the genus, Lysiphyllum , making it Lysiphyllum cunninghamii. [2] [3]

Uses

The leaves and pods are high in protein and minerals, and are used as fodder for stock. [8] The dense, weeping habit means that wallabies and other animals use the trees to shelter from the heat of the day. [14] Fires made from the wood are smokeless, and so the wood is often used for cooking. [8] Windbreaks are made from the branches. [8]

Aborigines sucked nectar from the flowers. [6] They made a decoction from the roots and inner bark, which was used on the skin as an antiseptic, and also drunk to treat fevers and other sicknesses. [6]

Ash from the tree is mixed with chewing tobacco, and chewed. [14] A further use is to mix the sap with the nectar to make a chewy and tasty gum ("Turkish delight"). [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Grevillea miniata</i> Species of shrub in the family Proteaceae endemic to Western Australia and the Northern Territory

Grevillea miniata, commonly known as the sandstone grevillea, is a shrub or small tree between 1.8 and 5 metres in height which is native to Western Australia and the Northern Territory. It has yellow or orange flowers and holly-like leaves.

<i>Ventilago viminalis</i> Species of tree

Ventilago viminalis, commonly known as supplejack, vine tree or whip vine, is a tree native to Northern and Central Australia from coastal regions of Queensland to the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

<i>Conospermum stoechadis</i> Species of Australian shrub in the family Proteaceae

Conospermum stoechadis, commonly known as common smokebush, is a shrub endemic to Western Australia.

<i>Banksia spinulosa <span style="font-style:normal;">var.</span> cunninghamii</i> Variety of shrub in the family Proteaceae from the east coast of Australia

Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii, sometimes given species rank as Banksia cunninghamii, is a shrub that grows along the east coast of Australia, in Victoria and New South Wales. It is a fast-growing non-lignotuberous shrub or small tree infrequently cultivated.

Plantago debilis is a species of herb native to Australia. Common names include shade plantain and weak plantain.

Stemona australiana is a plant species native to tropical south-east Asia, including northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. It grows as a herb or climber up to two metres high.

<i>Grevillea pteridifolia</i> Species of shrub in the family Proteaceae endemic to Australia

Grevillea pteridifolia is a species of Grevillea native to Australia. Common names include silky grevillea, Darwin silky oak, ferny-leaved silky oak, fern-leaved grevillea, golden grevillea, golden tree and golden parrot tree. It occurs in Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland.

<i>Adenanthos <span style="font-style:normal;">×</span> cunninghamii</i> Species of hybrid shrub in the family Proteaceae endemic to the south-west of Western Australia

Adenanthos × cunninghamii, commonly known as woollybush, Albany woollybush or prostrate woollybush, is a hybrid shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.

<i>Randia moorei</i> Species of plant

Randia moorei, commonly known as the spiny gardenia, is a rare Australian shrub growing in the far north eastern areas of the state of New South Wales and adjacent areas in Queensland. The habitat is subtropical rainforest north of Lismore.

<i>Gmelina fasciculiflora</i> Species of tree

Gmelina fasciculiflora, known as the northern white beech is a species of trees endemic to the Queensland tropical rain forests, Australia, of the mint (Lamiaceae) plant family. It is one of four recognised species of the genus Gmelina found in Australia.

<i>Adenanthos <span style="font-style:normal;">sect.</span> Eurylaema</i> Taxonomic section of the flowering plant genus Adenanthos (Proteaceae)

Adenanthos sect. Eurylaema is a taxonomic section of the flowering plant genus Adenanthos (Proteaceae). It comprises four species, all of which are endemic to southwest Western Australia.

<i>Persoonia falcata</i> Species of shrub

Persoonia falcata, commonly known as the wild pear, is a shrub native to northern Australia.

<i>Gymnanthera</i> Genus of plants

Gymnanthera is a genus of vines in the family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1810. It is native to China, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

  1. Gymnanthera cunninghamii(Benth.) P.I.Forst. - Enderby Island + Dampier Archipelago of Western Australia
  2. Gymnanthera oblonga(Burm.f.) P.S.Green - S China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia
<i>Lomatia arborescens</i> Species of shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae from eastern Australia

Lomatia arborescens, commonly known as smooth lomatia or tree lomatia, is a shrub or small tree that grows at high altitudes, in and near rainforests. It is found north from the Barrington Tops area in eastern Australia.

<i>Hardenbergia comptoniana</i> Species of legume

Hardenbergia comptoniana is a species of flowering plant in the pea family, Fabaceae, native to Western Australia. A twining vine, it produces purple flowers in the Southern Hemisphere spring. It is found on sand dunes and sand plains, and in open forest, on sand- or clay-based soils. It is readily cultivated in the garden, where it does best in a part-shaded position.

<i>Corymbia grandifolia</i> Species of plant

Corymbia grandifolia, commonly known as the cabbage gum, large-leaved cabbage gum and the paper-fruited bloodwood, is a species of tree that is endemic to northern Australia. It has smooth bark, egg-shaped to broadly elliptic to lance-shaped adult leaves, flowers buds in groups of three or seven, creamy white flowers and cup-shaped to cylindrical fruit.

Terminalia grandiflora, commonly known as yalu, plumwood or nutwood, is a tree of the family Combretaceae native to northern Australia. The Nungali and Jaru peoples know the tree as badgari and the Wagiman know it as barnyin.

<i>Lysiana subfalcata</i> Species of plant

Lysiana subfalcata, common name Northern mistletoe, is a spreading to pendulous hemi-parasitic shrub in the Loranthaceae which occurs in all mainland states of Australia except Victoria.

<i>Acacia latescens</i> Species of legume

Acacia latescens, also known as Ball wattle, is a tree in the genus Acacia. It is native to the Northern Territory where it is common in the Top End.

<i>Tribulus platypterus</i> Species of flowering plant

Tribulus platypterus, the cork hopbush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae, which is endemic to the northwest of Western Australia. It is closely related to Tribulus suberosus.

References

  1. ↑ Malcolm, P. 2012. Bauhinia cunninghamii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012: e.T19892625A20026317. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012.RLTS.T19892625A20026317.en. Downloaded on 30 May 2018
  2. 1 2 "Lysiphyllum cunninghamii". Australian Plant Name Index, IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  3. 1 2 Wit, H.C.D. de (1956) A revision of Malaysian Bauhinieae. Reinwardtia 3(4): 431
  4. ↑ Govaerts, R. et al. (2019) Plants of the world online: Lysiphyllum cunninghamii. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 "Bauhinia cunninghamii". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  6. 1 2 3 Moore, P. 2005. A Guide to Plants of Inland Australia (p. 361), Reed New Holland, Sydney Australia, ISBN   9781876334864
  7. 1 2 BM000810756, British Museum.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Society for Kimberley Indigenous Plants and Animals: Bauhinia cunninghamii". 2012-01-13. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Dixon, RMW 1991. 'Words of our Country.' UQP. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Bauhinia cunninghamii (Benth.) Benth". Flora NT The Northern Territory Flora online. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  11. ↑ Glottolog: Language Miriwung. Retrieved 7 June 2018
  12. ↑ Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring Language and Culture Centre. 2018. Miriwoong - English dictionary
  13. ↑ Kane, Brian. "The Jigal Tree". Bush Trees and Fruits of Broome. naturebase.net. Retrieved 2014-06-15.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Bauhinia cunninghamii (Jigal Tree)" . Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  15. ↑ Bentham, G. in Miquel, F.A.W. (1852), Plantae Junghuhnianae 2: 264
  16. ↑ "Phanera cunninghamii". Australian Plant Name Index, IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  17. ↑ Bentham, G. (1864) Flora Australiensis 2: 295.
  18. ↑ "Bauhinia cunninghamii". Australian Plant Name Index, IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.