Petrophile conifera

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Petrophile conifera
Petrophile conifera.jpg
In Sandy Gully
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Genus: Petrophile
Species:
P. conifera
Binomial name
Petrophile conifera
Synonyms [1]

Petrophila coniferaMeisn. orth. var.

Petrophile conifera is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a bushy, much-branched shrub with pinnate, sharply-pointed leaves, and oval heads of hairy, cream-coloured to yellowish white flowers.

Contents

Description

Petrophile conifera is a bushy, much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1.5 m (1 ft 0 in–4 ft 11 in) and has woolly-hairy young branchlets. The leaves are glabrous, 40–110 mm (1.6–4.3 in) long on a petiole 20–50 mm (0.79–1.97 in) long. They are rigid and needle-like, pinnately divided with sharply-pointed pinnae 4–35 mm (0.16–1.38 in) long. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets in sessile, oval heads 20–30 mm (0.79–1.18 in) long, with hairy, lance-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are 8–15 mm (0.31–0.59 in) long, hairy, cream-coloured, creamy yellow or yellowish white. Flowering occurs from August to October and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in an oval head 10–30 mm (0.39–1.18 in) long. [2] [3]

Taxonomy

Petrophile conifera was first formally described in 1855 by Carl Meissner in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany from material collected by James Drummond. [4] [5] The specific epithet (conifera) means "cone-bearing". [6]

In 2011, Michael Clyde Hislop and Kelly Anne Shepherd described two subspecies in the journal Nuytsia and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: [7]

Distribution and habitat

This petrophile grows in heath and on sandplains and is common north of Geraldton in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic regions of southwestern Western Australia. [2] [3] Subspecies conifera is found from Eurardy Reserve and Kalbarri National Park to the Chapman River near Geraldton and subsp. divaricata only occurs near Coorow. [7]

Conservation status

Petrophile conifera subsp. conifera is classified as "not threatened" [10] but subsp. divaricata is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife, [11] meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations. [12]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Petrophile divaricata</i> Species of shrub endemic to Western Australia

Petrophile divaricata is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a shrub with bipinnate, sharply-pointed leaves, and oval to oblong heads of hairy, yellow flowers.

<i>Petrophile diversifolia</i> Species of shrub endemic to Western Australia

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<i>Petrophile drummondii</i> Species of shrub endemic to Western Australia

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Petrophile filifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a small shrub with curved, long, needle-shaped leaves and more or less spherical heads of hairy cream-coloured to pale yellow flowers.

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<i>Petrophile serruriae</i> Species of shrub endemic to Western Australia

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<i>Petrophile squamata</i> Species of shrub endemic to Western Australia

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<i>Petrophile trifurcata</i> Species of shrub endemic to Western Australia

Petrophile trifurcata is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to south-western Western Australia. It is a shrub with three-lobed, needle-shaped, sharply-pointed leaves, and spherical heads of hairy, yellow flowers.

<i>Isopogon pruinosus</i> Species of shrub in the family Proteaceae endemic to southwestern Western Australia

Isopogon pruinosus is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a compact, spreading shrub with narrow egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base and spherical to elliptic heads of pink flowers.

References

  1. 1 2 "Petrophile conifera". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  2. 1 2 Foreman, David B. "Petrophile conifera". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Petrophile conifera". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  4. "Petrophile conifera". APNI. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  5. Meissner, Carl (1855). "New Proteaceae of Australia". Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Gardens Miscellany. 7: 67. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  6. Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 169. ISBN   9780958034180.
  7. 1 2 Rye, Barbara L.; Hislop, Michael C.; Shepherd, Kelly A.; Hollister, Chris (2011). "New south-western Australian members of the genus Petrophile (Proteaceae: Petrophileae), including a hybrid" (PDF). Nuytsia. 21 (2): 46–47. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  8. "Petrophile conifera subsp. conifera". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  9. "Petrophile conifera subsp. divaricata". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  10. "Petrophile conifera subsp. conifera". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  11. "Petrophile conifera subsp. divaricata". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  12. "Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna" (PDF). Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. Retrieved 8 December 2020.