Adenanthos
Encyclopedia
Adenanthos is an genus
of Australia
n native shrub
s in the flowering plant
family Proteaceae
. Variable in habit and leaf shape, it is the only Proteaceae genus in which solitary flowers is the norm. It was discovered in 1791, and formally published by Jacques Labillardière
in 1805. There are now 33 species recognised. The genus is placed in subfamily Proteoideae
, and is held to be most closely related to several South Africa
n genera.
Endemic
to Australia
, its centre of diversity is southwest
Western Australia
, where 31 species occur. The other two species occur in South Australia
and western Victoria (Australia)
. They are mainly pollinated by birds.
s to small tree
s, with most species occurring as erect shrubs. There are two basic growth forms. Plants that lack a lignotuber
have a single stem. Such plants usually grow into fairly erect shrubs; and sometimes the main stem thickens to become a trunk
, resulting in a small tree. Plants with a lignotuber
, on the other hand, have many stems arising from the underground rootstock, usually resulting in smaller shrubs with a mallee
habit.
This segmentation has its extreme in the distinctive leaf form characteristic of those Adenanthos species known as woollybush
es, in which the leaf is segmented, sometimes many times, into long thin laciniae, round in cross-section (terete), and often covered in a fine down of soft hairs. The number of laciniae varies greatly. In A. pungens
, for example, the leaves may be entire, or there may be a single segmentation into two or three laciniae; in A. sericeus
, the leaf is repeatedly tri-segmented into as many as 50 laciniae. This leaf form is seen in around half of the species.
Other common leaf forms include a wedge-shaped (cuneate) leaf with shallow lobes along the apex, seen, for example, in A. cuneatus
and A. stictus
; the oval-shaped (obovate) entire leaves of A. ellipticus and A. obovatus
; and the long thin leaves of A. detmoldii
and A. barbiger
. Only two species have leaves that are sharply pointed (pungent): A. pungens has a woollybush form of leaf with pungent laciniae, and A. acanthophyllus is a flat (laminar), deeply lobed leaf with sharp points along its margins.
Some sources state that some leaves of some species are tipped with extrafloral nectaries.
s. In fact, morphologically
speaking, the Adenanthos flower does occur in an inflorescence, but one in which the number of flowers has been reduced to one, leaving only a few vestigial clues to the elaborate structure from which it derived. Each flower is positioned at the end of a short peduncle
. The peduncle has minute basal bract
s at its base, and sometimes at its mid-point, providing evidence of the loss of some lateral axes. At the end of the peduncle sits the flower, sessile
or very nearly so, and surrounded at the base by an imbricate involucre. Very rarely, an involucre may enclose two flowers rather than just one, providing further evidence of reduction from a complex, multi-flowered inflorescence. Inflorescences occur individually at the end of branches (terminal) or at branch junctions (axillary
). Most species have terminal inflorescences, and in these cases the inflorescences are usually subtended by leaves, if not branchlets, so the flowers are obscured by the foliage. The species with axillary inflorescences tend to be much more showy.
The flower of Adenanthos is structurally the same as that of many other Proteaceae. Flower parts occur in multiples of four (tetramerous), but the four tepal
s are fused into a long, narrow perianth
-tube topped by a closed cup (the limb); the filament of each stamen
is fused along its entire length with the midrib of a tepal, so that the anthers appear almost sessile
, trapped within the limb; and the four carpels form a single compound pistil, the apex of which is also trapped within the limb. Four prominent scale-like nectaries surround the ovary
.
Structurally, the flowers of most Adenanthos species are radially symmetrical (actinomorphic); but in the small section Eurylaema
, one anther is sterile
and reduced to a staminode
, rendering the flowers structurally merely bilaterally symmetrical (zygomorphic). In both cases the flower soon becomes zygomorphic, as the pistil grows faster and longer than the perianth tube, causing the style to flex until it pushes its way out through a slit in the perianth-tube, which bends away from the style.
The apex of the style, called the stigma
in most flowering plants, is often referred to as the style-end in Proteaceae, since it performs two distinct functions: it performs the usual stigmatic role of pollen-collector, but also functions as a pollen-presenter
. At anthesis
, both the style-end and the anthers are trapped within the limb, so that when the anthers release their pollen
, the pollen adheres to the style-end. Shortly after pollen release, the tips of the tepals separate, causing the limb to break apart. The style-end is released, the style springs erect, and the flower's pollen is thus held aloft where it may be deposited on the face of a nectarivorous bird
. Unlike some other Proteaceae genera, the style-end of Adenanthos shows little evidence of adaption to either of its dual roles. In most species is it slightly broader than the style, and conical in shape, but in section Eurylaema is oval and flattened. In both cases the stigmatic groove is a furrow on one side of the style end.
). It is brown, ellipsoid in shape, and ranges in size from three to eight mm long, and one to two millimetres wide. It is not often seen on the plant because it develops within the involucre of the flower, which persists long after the flower itself has withered and fallen. By the time the fruit is mature, the involucre has dried and spread, so that the fruit is free to fall to the ground as soon as it abscisses from the plant. In some species this happens as soon as the fruit is mature; in others, the fruit may be retained on the plant for some time.
The production of seedless fruit (parthenocarpy
) is common, as is seed abortion (stenospermocarpy
). When a seed is present, it is white, ellipsoidal, and nearly fills the fruit.
and William Dampier
. Vlamingh explored the Swan River
and visited Shark Bay
in 1697. He almost certainly collected plant specimens, as two south-west Australian endemics were published many years later, based on specimens for which the collection cannot be attributed to any other known voyage. Two years after Vlamingh, Dampier visited the north-west coast, collecting around 40 specimens of 23 plant species from sites at Shark Bay and in the Dampier Archipelago
. There is no record in either case of specimens of Adenanthos being seen or collected, but A. cygnorum
is fairly common at the Swan River, and A. acanthophyllus occurs at Shark Bay, albeit only at the southern end of Peron Peninsula
, where neither expedition is likely to have visited.
The first known collection of the genus was made by Archibald Menzies
, surgeon and naturalist to the Vancouver Expedition
of 1791–1795. The Vancouver expedition discovered King George Sound
in September 1791, and during their stay there Menzies collected specimens of many plant species, including two Adenanthos species, A. sericeus
and A. obovatus
.
Jacques Labillardière
, naturalist to Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
's expedition in search of the lost ships of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
, visited Esperance Bay
on the south coast of Western Australia in 1792, collecting A. cuneatus
there.
In December 1801 and January 1802, at the start of Matthew Flinders
' famous circumnavigation
of Australia, HMS Investigator visited King George Sound
for several weeks. The botanist to the voyage, Robert Brown
, made an extensive plant specimen collection, including A. cuneatus, A. sericeus and A. obovatus. A few months later he collected what would become the type specimen of A. terminalis
from near Port Lincoln. As HMS Investigator was commencing its anticlockwise circumnavigation, a French expedition under Nicolas Baudin
was exploring the coastline in a clockwise direction. The two expeditions famously encountered each other in 1802 at what would be named Encounter Bay
in South Australia
, then Baudin continued westward, arriving at King George Sound in February 1803. There, botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour
, assisted by gardener's boy Antoine Guichenot
, collected plant specimens including A. cuneatus, A. obovatus and A. sericeus.
. Though he did not give an explicit etymology
for the genus name therein, the type specimen for A. cuneatus
contains annotations that show Labillardière experimenting with various Greek
word stem
s, listing in each case the corresponding Latin
transliteration and meaning. He eventually settled on Adenanthos, formed from the Greek stems άδὴν (aden, glandula, "gland") and ανθος (anthos, flos, "flower"). Irish botanist E. Charles Nelson states that the name refers to the prominent and copiously productive nectaries.
Labillardière published three species, naming them A. cuneata, A. sericea and A. obovata, giving them feminine gender consistent with his view of the gender of the genus name. He did not say which of the three was to serve as type species
for the genus, but Nelson has since chosen A. cuneatus as lectotype
, since Labillardière's description of it is referred to by the descriptions of the other two species.
Labillardière also did not acknowledge a collector of the specimens upon which these names were based, and so it was long thought that Labillardière himself collected them. However, neither A. obovatus nor the type subspecies of A. sericeus occurs at any location visited by Labillardière, suggesting that some of his specimens were obtained from some other collector whom he failed to credit. The realisation of this fact prompted a re-evaluation of the type material by Nelson, who attributed their collection to Leschenault. This view has been accepted by some scholars though others treat it more cautiously.
Naturally-occurring hybrids
gave it as the common name of Adenanthos in the second edition of John Stanley Beard
's A Descriptive Catalogue of West Australian Plants.
Nelson also notes that the phrase stick-in-jug does not appear in any common name of a species. The common names of species are instead based around several other generic terms that do not apply to the genus as a whole:
Western Australia
, to which 31 of the 33 species are endemic. The south coast of Western Australia, between the Stirling Range
and the Fitzgerald River
area, is particular diverse, with 17 species occurring on the Esperance Plains
alone. This is one of two areas dominated by kwongan
heath
, a vegetation complex renowned for its species richness and high levels of endemism; the other area of kwongan, further north on the west coast around Mount Lesueur
, harbours surprisingly few Adenanthos species.
Species occur throughout most of the southwest. In northern areas, where there are fewer species, the genus does not extend into drier inland areas, being absent from northern parts of the Avon Wheatbelt
region. To the south, however, they extend well inland, extending even beyond the southwest into the neighbouring desert: A. argyreus
occurs as far inland as Southern Cross
.
Eastwards along the south coast, the genus occurs in disjunct populations on isolated pockets of siliceous sand surrounded by the calcareous soils of the Great Australian Bight
. The most easterly occurrence in Western Australia
is at Twilight Cove.
The two species that occur outside southwest Western Australia are Adenanthos macropodianus
(Kangaroo Island Glandflower), which is endemic to Kangaroo Island
; and Adenanthos terminalis
(Yellow Glandflower), which occurs in South Australia
on the Eyre Peninsula
and Kangaroo Island
, and from Adelaide
eastwards into western Victoria
.
species have been observed feeding at Adenanthos flowers, including Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris (Eastern Spinebill), Anthochaera chrysoptera (Little Wattlebird), Phylidonyris pyrrhoptera (Crescent Honeyeater), Phylidonyris novaehollandiae (New Holland Honeyeater), Gliciphila melanops (Tawny-crowned Honeyeater), Zosterops lateralis (Silvereye) and Melithreptus brevirostris (Brown-headed Honeyeater). One study found that the amount of time that birds spent feeding at a site was strongly correlated with the abundance of Banksia sessilis (Parrotbush), and seemed unrelated to the amount of Adenanthos there; yet these birds nonetheless fed at Adenanthos flowers.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n native shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s in the flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
family Proteaceae
Proteaceae
Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...
. Variable in habit and leaf shape, it is the only Proteaceae genus in which solitary flowers is the norm. It was discovered in 1791, and formally published by Jacques Labillardière
Jacques Labillardière
Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière was a French naturalist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the La Pérouse expedition...
in 1805. There are now 33 species recognised. The genus is placed in subfamily Proteoideae
Proteoideae
Proteoideae is one of five subfamilies of the flowering plant family Proteaceae. The greatest diversity of Proteoideae is in Africa, but there are also many species in Australia; a few species occur in South America, New Caledonia, and elsewhere.-Taxonomy:...
, and is held to be most closely related to several South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n genera.
Endemic
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, its centre of diversity is southwest
Southwest Australia
Southwest Australia is a biodiversity hotspot that includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of Western Australia. The region has a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate, one of five such regions in the world...
Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, where 31 species occur. The other two species occur in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and western Victoria (Australia)
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. They are mainly pollinated by birds.
Habit
The growth habits of Adenanthos species range from prostrate shrubProstrate shrub
A prostrate shrub is a woody plant, most of the branches of which lie upon or just under the ground, rather than being held erect as are the branches of most trees and shrubs....
s to small tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s, with most species occurring as erect shrubs. There are two basic growth forms. Plants that lack a lignotuber
Lignotuber
A lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of...
have a single stem. Such plants usually grow into fairly erect shrubs; and sometimes the main stem thickens to become a trunk
Trunk (botany)
In botany, trunk refers to the main wooden axis of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots. The trunk is covered by the bark, which is an important diagnostic feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the...
, resulting in a small tree. Plants with a lignotuber
Lignotuber
A lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of...
, on the other hand, have many stems arising from the underground rootstock, usually resulting in smaller shrubs with a mallee
Mallee (habit)
Mallee is the growth habit of certain eucalypt species that grow with multiple stems springing from an underground lignotuber, usually to a height of no more than ten metres...
habit.
Leaf
As with most other Proteaceae genera, leaf shape is highly variable in Adenanthos. Though the leaves are always simple (as in not compound), they may be lobed, or even deeply divided into segments, usually by three.This segmentation has its extreme in the distinctive leaf form characteristic of those Adenanthos species known as woollybush
Woollybush
Woollybush, woolly bush or woolly-bush is a common name for plants of the genus Adenanthos with leaves deeply divided into long, soft, slender laciniae, often covered in a fine down of soft hairs...
es, in which the leaf is segmented, sometimes many times, into long thin laciniae, round in cross-section (terete), and often covered in a fine down of soft hairs. The number of laciniae varies greatly. In A. pungens
Adenanthos pungens
Adenanthos pungens is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia....
, for example, the leaves may be entire, or there may be a single segmentation into two or three laciniae; in A. sericeus
Adenanthos sericeus
Adenanthos sericeus, commonly known as Woolly Bush, is a shrub native to the south coast of Western Australia. It has bright red but small and obscure flowers, and very soft, deeply divided, hairy leaves.-Description:...
, the leaf is repeatedly tri-segmented into as many as 50 laciniae. This leaf form is seen in around half of the species.
Other common leaf forms include a wedge-shaped (cuneate) leaf with shallow lobes along the apex, seen, for example, in A. cuneatus
Adenanthos cuneatus
Adenanthos cuneatus is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. It was originally described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and is most closely related to A. stictus. A....
and A. stictus
Adenanthos stictus
Adenanthos cuneatus is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. It was described by Alex George in 1974....
; the oval-shaped (obovate) entire leaves of A. ellipticus and A. obovatus
Adenanthos obovatus
Adenanthos obovatus, commonly known as basket flower or jugflower, is a shrub of the Proteaceae family endemic to Southwest Australia. Described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805, it had been first collected by Archibald Menzies in 1791...
; and the long thin leaves of A. detmoldii
Adenanthos detmoldii
Adenanthos detmoldii, commonly known as Scott River Jugflower or Yellow Jugflower, is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.-Description:...
and A. barbiger
Adenanthos barbiger
Adenanthos barbiger is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It usually grows to 1 metre high, and has bright red flowers that appear mostly between August and December...
. Only two species have leaves that are sharply pointed (pungent): A. pungens has a woollybush form of leaf with pungent laciniae, and A. acanthophyllus is a flat (laminar), deeply lobed leaf with sharp points along its margins.
Some sources state that some leaves of some species are tipped with extrafloral nectaries.
Inflorescence and flower
Unusually for members of the Proteaceae family, Adenanthos flowers are solitary, rather than clustered together in large showy inflorescenceInflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s. In fact, morphologically
Morphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
speaking, the Adenanthos flower does occur in an inflorescence, but one in which the number of flowers has been reduced to one, leaving only a few vestigial clues to the elaborate structure from which it derived. Each flower is positioned at the end of a short peduncle
Peduncle (botany)
In botany, a peduncle is a stem supporting an inflorescence, or after fecundation, an infructescence.The peduncle is a stem, usually green and without leaves, though sometimes colored or supporting small leaves...
. The peduncle has minute basal bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
s at its base, and sometimes at its mid-point, providing evidence of the loss of some lateral axes. At the end of the peduncle sits the flower, sessile
Sessility (botany)
In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...
or very nearly so, and surrounded at the base by an imbricate involucre. Very rarely, an involucre may enclose two flowers rather than just one, providing further evidence of reduction from a complex, multi-flowered inflorescence. Inflorescences occur individually at the end of branches (terminal) or at branch junctions (axillary
Axillary bud
The axillary bud is an embryonic shoot which lies at the junction of the stem and petiole of a plant.As the apical meristem grows and forms leaves, a region of meristematic cells are left behind at the node between the stem and the leaf. These axillary buds are usually dormant, inibited by auxin...
). Most species have terminal inflorescences, and in these cases the inflorescences are usually subtended by leaves, if not branchlets, so the flowers are obscured by the foliage. The species with axillary inflorescences tend to be much more showy.
The flower of Adenanthos is structurally the same as that of many other Proteaceae. Flower parts occur in multiples of four (tetramerous), but the four tepal
Tepal
Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...
s are fused into a long, narrow perianth
Perianth
The term perianth has two similar but separate meanings in botany:* In flowering plants, the perianth are the outer, sterile whorls of a flower...
-tube topped by a closed cup (the limb); the filament of each stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
is fused along its entire length with the midrib of a tepal, so that the anthers appear almost sessile
Sessility (botany)
In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...
, trapped within the limb; and the four carpels form a single compound pistil, the apex of which is also trapped within the limb. Four prominent scale-like nectaries surround the ovary
Ovary
The ovary is an ovum-producing reproductive organ, often found in pairs as part of the vertebrate female reproductive system. Ovaries in anatomically female individuals are analogous to testes in anatomically male individuals, in that they are both gonads and endocrine glands.-Human anatomy:Ovaries...
.
Structurally, the flowers of most Adenanthos species are radially symmetrical (actinomorphic); but in the small section Eurylaema
Adenanthos sect. Eurylaema
Adenanthos sect. Eurylaema is a taxonomic section of the flowering plant genus Adenanthos . It comprises four species, all of which are endemic to southwest Western Australia.-Description:...
, one anther is sterile
Sterility (physiology)
Sterility is the physiological inability to effect sexual reproduction in a living thing, members of whose kind have been produced sexually. The term may be used in reference to* types of organism, such as the mule, a sterile hybrid;...
and reduced to a staminode
Staminode
In botany, a staminode is an often rudimentary, sterile or abortive stamen. This means that it does not produce pollen. Staminodes are frequently inconspicuous and stamen-like, usually occurring at the inner whorl of the flower, but are also sometimes long enough to protrude from the...
, rendering the flowers structurally merely bilaterally symmetrical (zygomorphic). In both cases the flower soon becomes zygomorphic, as the pistil grows faster and longer than the perianth tube, causing the style to flex until it pushes its way out through a slit in the perianth-tube, which bends away from the style.
The apex of the style, called the stigma
Stigma (botany)
The stigma is the receptive tip of a carpel, or of several fused carpels, in the gynoecium of a flower. The stigma receives pollen at pollination and it is on the stigma that the pollen grain germinates. The stigma is adapted to catch and trap pollen with various hairs, flaps, or sculpturings...
in most flowering plants, is often referred to as the style-end in Proteaceae, since it performs two distinct functions: it performs the usual stigmatic role of pollen-collector, but also functions as a pollen-presenter
Pollen-presenter
A pollen-presenter is an area on the tip of the pistil in flowers of plants of the family Proteaceae. In this family, the anthers are difficult of access for potential pollination vectors such as bees, birds and nectariferous mammals....
. At anthesis
Anthesis
Anthesis is the period during which a flower is fully open and functional. It may also refer to the onset of that period.The onset of anthesis is spectacular in some species. In Banksia species, for example, anthesis involves the extension of the style far beyond the upper perianth parts...
, both the style-end and the anthers are trapped within the limb, so that when the anthers release their pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
, the pollen adheres to the style-end. Shortly after pollen release, the tips of the tepals separate, causing the limb to break apart. The style-end is released, the style springs erect, and the flower's pollen is thus held aloft where it may be deposited on the face of a nectarivorous bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
. Unlike some other Proteaceae genera, the style-end of Adenanthos shows little evidence of adaption to either of its dual roles. In most species is it slightly broader than the style, and conical in shape, but in section Eurylaema is oval and flattened. In both cases the stigmatic groove is a furrow on one side of the style end.
Fruit and seed
The fruit of Adenanthos is a simple dry hard-shelled nut that surrounds the seed but does not adhere to it (an acheneAchene
An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent...
). It is brown, ellipsoid in shape, and ranges in size from three to eight mm long, and one to two millimetres wide. It is not often seen on the plant because it develops within the involucre of the flower, which persists long after the flower itself has withered and fallen. By the time the fruit is mature, the involucre has dried and spread, so that the fruit is free to fall to the ground as soon as it abscisses from the plant. In some species this happens as soon as the fruit is mature; in others, the fruit may be retained on the plant for some time.
The production of seedless fruit (parthenocarpy
Parthenocarpy
In botany and horticulture, parthenocarpy is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilization of ovules. The fruit is therefore seedless. Stenospermocarpy may also produce apparently seedless fruit, but the seeds are actually aborted while still small...
) is common, as is seed abortion (stenospermocarpy
Stenospermocarpy
Stenospermocarpy is the biological mechanism that produces seedlessness in some fruits, notably many table grapes. In stenospermocarpic fruits, normal pollination and fertilization are still required to ensure that the fruit 'sets', i.e...
). When a seed is present, it is white, ellipsoidal, and nearly fills the fruit.
Early collections
Early explorers who could have seen and collected Adenanthos include Willem de VlaminghWillem de Vlamingh
Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh was a Dutch sea-captain who explored the central west coast of Australia in the late 17th century.- Vlamingh and the VOC :...
and William Dampier
William Dampier
William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, author and scientific observer...
. Vlamingh explored the Swan River
Swan River (Western Australia)
The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....
and visited Shark Bay
Shark Bay
Shark Bay is a World Heritage listed bay in Western Australia. The term may also refer to:* the locality of Shark Bay, now known as Denham* Shark Bay Marine Park* Shark Bay , a shark exhibit at Sea World, Gold Coast, Australia* Shire of Shark Bay...
in 1697. He almost certainly collected plant specimens, as two south-west Australian endemics were published many years later, based on specimens for which the collection cannot be attributed to any other known voyage. Two years after Vlamingh, Dampier visited the north-west coast, collecting around 40 specimens of 23 plant species from sites at Shark Bay and in the Dampier Archipelago
Dampier Archipelago
The Dampier Archipelago is a group of islands near Dampier, Western Australia. It is named after William Dampier, an English buccaneer and explorer who visited in 1699. Dampier named one of the islands, Rosemary Island.-History:...
. There is no record in either case of specimens of Adenanthos being seen or collected, but A. cygnorum
Adenanthos cygnorum
Adenanthos cygnorum, commonly known as common woollybush or just woollybush, is a tall shrub in the Proteaceae family. It is endemic to Western Australia, commonly occurring in the south west of the State from north of Geraldton south to Kojonup...
is fairly common at the Swan River, and A. acanthophyllus occurs at Shark Bay, albeit only at the southern end of Peron Peninsula
Peron Peninsula
Peron Peninsula is a long narrow peninsula located in the Shark Bay World Heritage site in Western Australia, at about 25o51' S longitude and 113o30' E latitude. It is some 80 miles long, running north-northwesterly, located east of Henri Freycinet Harbour and west of Havre Hamelin and Faure...
, where neither expedition is likely to have visited.
The first known collection of the genus was made by Archibald Menzies
Archibald Menzies
Archibald Menzies was a Scottish surgeon, botanist and naturalist.- Life and career :Menzies was born at Easter Stix in the parish of Weem, in Perthshire. While working with his elder brother William at the Royal Botanic Gardens, he drew the attention of Dr John Hope, professor of botany at...
, surgeon and naturalist to the Vancouver Expedition
Vancouver Expedition
The Vancouver Expedition was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver. The expedition circumnavigated the globe, touched five continents and changed the course of history for the indigenous nations and several European empires and their...
of 1791–1795. The Vancouver expedition discovered King George Sound
King George Sound
King George Sound is the name of a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Located at , it is the site of the city of Albany.The sound covers an area of and varies in depth from to ....
in September 1791, and during their stay there Menzies collected specimens of many plant species, including two Adenanthos species, A. sericeus
Adenanthos sericeus
Adenanthos sericeus, commonly known as Woolly Bush, is a shrub native to the south coast of Western Australia. It has bright red but small and obscure flowers, and very soft, deeply divided, hairy leaves.-Description:...
and A. obovatus
Adenanthos obovatus
Adenanthos obovatus, commonly known as basket flower or jugflower, is a shrub of the Proteaceae family endemic to Southwest Australia. Described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805, it had been first collected by Archibald Menzies in 1791...
.
Jacques Labillardière
Jacques Labillardière
Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière was a French naturalist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the La Pérouse expedition...
, naturalist to Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was a French navigator who explored the Australian coast in 1792 while seeking traces of the lost expedition of La Pérouse....
's expedition in search of the lost ships of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.-Early career:...
, visited Esperance Bay
Esperance Bay
Esperance Bay is a bay on the south coast of Western Australia. Nominally located at , it is the site of the town of Esperance.The bay was discovered on 9 December 1792 by a French expedition under Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, which sailed in search of the lost expedition of Jean-François de Galaup,...
on the south coast of Western Australia in 1792, collecting A. cuneatus
Adenanthos cuneatus
Adenanthos cuneatus is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. It was originally described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and is most closely related to A. stictus. A....
there.
In December 1801 and January 1802, at the start of Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
' famous circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
of Australia, HMS Investigator visited King George Sound
King George Sound
King George Sound is the name of a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Located at , it is the site of the city of Albany.The sound covers an area of and varies in depth from to ....
for several weeks. The botanist to the voyage, Robert Brown
Robert Brown (botanist)
Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
, made an extensive plant specimen collection, including A. cuneatus, A. sericeus and A. obovatus. A few months later he collected what would become the type specimen of A. terminalis
Adenanthos terminalis
Adenanthos terminalis, commonly known as Gland Flower, Yellow Gland Flower or Adenanthos, is a one metre tall shrub in the Proteaceae family...
from near Port Lincoln. As HMS Investigator was commencing its anticlockwise circumnavigation, a French expedition under Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
was exploring the coastline in a clockwise direction. The two expeditions famously encountered each other in 1802 at what would be named Encounter Bay
Encounter Bay
Encounter Bay is located on the south central coast of South Australia, some 100 km south of Adelaide, South Australia. It is named after the encounter on 8 April 1802 between Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin, both of whom were charting the Australian coastline for their respective countries...
in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, then Baudin continued westward, arriving at King George Sound in February 1803. There, botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour
Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour
Jean Baptiste Louis Claude Theodore Leschenault de la Tour was a French botanist and ornithologist.Leschenault de la Tour was chief botanist on Nicolas Baudin's expedition to Australia between 1800 and 1803...
, assisted by gardener's boy Antoine Guichenot
Antoine Guichenot
Antoine Guichenot or Guichenault was "gardener's boy" on the 1801—1803 French scientific voyage to Australia under Nicolas Baudin, and the 1817 voyage under Louis de Freycinet...
, collected plant specimens including A. cuneatus, A. obovatus and A. sericeus.
Publication
The genus Adenanthos was first described and named by Labillardière in his 1805 Novae Hollandiae Plantarum SpecimenNovae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen
Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen is a two volume work describing the flora of Australia. The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillardière, who visited the region in 1792 with the d'Entrecasteaux expedition...
. Though he did not give an explicit etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
for the genus name therein, the type specimen for A. cuneatus
Adenanthos cuneatus
Adenanthos cuneatus is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. It was originally described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and is most closely related to A. stictus. A....
contains annotations that show Labillardière experimenting with various Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word stem
Word stem
In linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...
s, listing in each case the corresponding Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
transliteration and meaning. He eventually settled on Adenanthos, formed from the Greek stems άδὴν (aden, glandula, "gland") and ανθος (anthos, flos, "flower"). Irish botanist E. Charles Nelson states that the name refers to the prominent and copiously productive nectaries.
Labillardière published three species, naming them A. cuneata, A. sericea and A. obovata, giving them feminine gender consistent with his view of the gender of the genus name. He did not say which of the three was to serve as type species
Type species
In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...
for the genus, but Nelson has since chosen A. cuneatus as lectotype
Lectotype
In botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature, a lectotype is a kind of name-bearing type. When a species was originally described on the basis of a name-bearing type consisting of multiple specimens, one of those may be designated as the lectotype...
, since Labillardière's description of it is referred to by the descriptions of the other two species.
Labillardière also did not acknowledge a collector of the specimens upon which these names were based, and so it was long thought that Labillardière himself collected them. However, neither A. obovatus nor the type subspecies of A. sericeus occurs at any location visited by Labillardière, suggesting that some of his specimens were obtained from some other collector whom he failed to credit. The realisation of this fact prompted a re-evaluation of the type material by Nelson, who attributed their collection to Leschenault. This view has been accepted by some scholars though others treat it more cautiously.
List of species
- Adenanthos acanthophyllus (Prickly Woollbush)
- Adenanthos apiculatusAdenanthos apiculatusAdenanthos apiculatus is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and has had only 29 records of occurrence....
- Adenanthos argyreusAdenanthos argyreusAdenanthos argyreus is a species of erect shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia....
(Little Woollybush) - Adenanthos barbigerAdenanthos barbigerAdenanthos barbiger is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It usually grows to 1 metre high, and has bright red flowers that appear mostly between August and December...
(Hairy Jugflower) - Adenanthos cacomorphusAdenanthos cacomorphusAdenanthos cacomorphus is a small shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is found in southwestern Australia.-Description:Adenanthos cacomorphus grows as a small lignotuberous shrub up to one metre high. The soft and hairy leaves are more or less triangular in shape with 3 to 5 apical lobes...
- Adenanthos cuneatusAdenanthos cuneatusAdenanthos cuneatus is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. It was originally described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and is most closely related to A. stictus. A....
(Coastal Jugflower) - Adenanthos cygnorumAdenanthos cygnorumAdenanthos cygnorum, commonly known as common woollybush or just woollybush, is a tall shrub in the Proteaceae family. It is endemic to Western Australia, commonly occurring in the south west of the State from north of Geraldton south to Kojonup...
(Common Woollybush) - Adenanthos detmoldiiAdenanthos detmoldiiAdenanthos detmoldii, commonly known as Scott River Jugflower or Yellow Jugflower, is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.-Description:...
(Scott River Jugflower) - Adenanthos dobagiiAdenanthos dobagiiAdenanthos dobagii, commonly known as Fitzgerald Woollybush, is a shrub in the family Proteaceae. It grows to a mere 50 cm high, with crowded small silvery leaves and insignificant pink or cream flowers...
(Fitzgerald Woollybush) - Adenanthos dobsonii
- Adenanthos drummondiiAdenanthos drummondiiAdenanthos drummondii is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and is most closely related to A. stictus....
- Adenanthos ellipticus (Oval-leaf Adenanthos)
- Adenanthos eyreiAdenanthos eyreiAdenanthos eyrei is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. Restricted to a single cliff-top dune system on the remote south coast of Western Australia, it is listed as rare and endangered. It was discovered by E...
(Toolinna Adenanthos) - Adenanthos filifoliusAdenanthos filifoliusAdenanthos filifolius is a species of erect shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia. It was first described by George Bentham in 1870....
- Adenanthos flavidiflorus
- Adenanthos forrestii
- Adenanthos glabrescensAdenanthos glabrescensAdenanthos glabrescens is a species of small shrub endemic to the Ravensthorpe area in southwest Western Australia. First published in 1978, there are two subspecies.-Description:...
- Adenanthos gracilipes
- Adenanthos ileticosAdenanthos ileticosAdenanthos ileticos is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It has roughly triangular, lobed leaves, and pale pink-red and cream, inconspicuous flowers. A rare species, it is known only from a single location in the south-west of Western Australia...
(Club-leaf Adenanthos) - Adenanthos labillardiereiAdenanthos labillardiereiAdenanthos labillardierei is a species of erect shrub endemic to the slopes of the Barren Ranges in the Fitzgerald River National Park in southwest Western Australia.-Description:It grows as an erect shrub, usually less than m in height...
- Adenanthos linearisAdenanthos linearisAdenanthos linearis is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and has had only 14 occurrences; out of those 14, only 5 have had exact coordinates....
- Adenanthos macropodianusAdenanthos macropodianusAdenanthos macropodianus, commonly known as Gland Flower, or Kangaroo Island Gland Flower, is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to Kangaroo Island in South Australia...
(Kangaroo Island Gland Flower) - Adenanthos meisneriAdenanthos meisneriAdenanthos meisneri, commonly known as Prostrate Woollybush, is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia....
(Prostrate Woollybush) - Adenanthos obovatusAdenanthos obovatusAdenanthos obovatus, commonly known as basket flower or jugflower, is a shrub of the Proteaceae family endemic to Southwest Australia. Described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805, it had been first collected by Archibald Menzies in 1791...
(Basket Flower) - Adenanthos oreophilusAdenanthos oreophilusAdenanthos oreophilus, commonly known as Woollybush, is a species of tall shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia. It is closely related to the better known A. sericeus , and was only classified as a species distinct from the latter in 1978 by Irish botanist E...
(Woollybush) - Adenanthos pungensAdenanthos pungensAdenanthos pungens is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia....
(Spiky Adenanthos) - Adenanthos sericeusAdenanthos sericeusAdenanthos sericeus, commonly known as Woolly Bush, is a shrub native to the south coast of Western Australia. It has bright red but small and obscure flowers, and very soft, deeply divided, hairy leaves.-Description:...
(Coastal Woolly Bush) - Adenanthos stictusAdenanthos stictusAdenanthos cuneatus is a shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the south coast of Western Australia. It was described by Alex George in 1974....
- Adenanthos terminalisAdenanthos terminalisAdenanthos terminalis, commonly known as Gland Flower, Yellow Gland Flower or Adenanthos, is a one metre tall shrub in the Proteaceae family...
(Yellow Gland Flower) - Adenanthos velutinus (Velvet Woollybush)
- Adenanthos venosus
Naturally-occurring hybrids
- Adenanthos × cunninghamiiAdenanthos × cunninghamiiAdenanthos × 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.-Description:...
(Albany Woollybush) - Adenanthos × pamelaAdenanthos × pamelaAdenanthos × pamela is a naturally occurring hybrid of A. detmoldii and A. obovatus. A bushy shrub intermediate between its parents in habit, leaf shape and flower colour, it is known only from road verges in the Scott River area, where its parent species co-occur...
Common names
Nelson has published a thorough but somewhat light-hearted analysis of the common names used for this genus. He notes that the only common name applied to the genus as a whole is stick-in-jug (sometimes stick-in-the-jug), but argues that this seems to be in use only within Western Australia's Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM; now the Department of Environment and Conservation). Be that as it may, the name dates back at least to 1970, when Charles GardnerCharles Gardner
Charles Austin Gardner was a Western Australian botanist.Born in Lancaster, England on 6 January 1896, he emigrated to Western Australia with his family in 1909....
gave it as the common name of Adenanthos in the second edition of John Stanley Beard
John Stanley Beard
John Stanley Beard was a British-born forester and ecologist who resided in Australia. While working with the Forestry Division in Trinidad and Tobago during the 1940s, Beard developed a system of forest classification for Tropical America and described the forests of Trinidad, Tobago, and the...
's A Descriptive Catalogue of West Australian Plants.
Nelson also notes that the phrase stick-in-jug does not appear in any common name of a species. The common names of species are instead based around several other generic terms that do not apply to the genus as a whole:
- Thirteen species of Adenanthos have leaves deeply divided into long, soft, slender laciniae, often covered in a fine down of soft hairs, giving them a soft, silky feel, in stark contrast to the sclerophyllSclerophyllSclerophyll is the term for a type of vegetation that has hard leaves and short internodes . The word comes from the Greek sclero and phyllon ....
ous plants that dominate both the geographic range and taxonomic family of Adenanthos. These are collectively known as woollybushWoollybushWoollybush, woolly bush or woolly-bush is a common name for plants of the genus Adenanthos with leaves deeply divided into long, soft, slender laciniae, often covered in a fine down of soft hairs...
es, and many of these species contain woollybush in their common names. - Those species that lack the leaves characteristic of woollybushes usually have common names based on the term jugflower, or, in one case, the semantically similar basket flower.
- However these common names appear to be in use exclusively in Western Australia, as the two species of Adenanthos that occur outside Western Australia are both woollybushes, yet have common names based on the term gland flower, which is also used in the common name of A. barbigerAdenanthos barbigerAdenanthos barbiger is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It usually grows to 1 metre high, and has bright red flowers that appear mostly between August and December...
(Hairy Glandflower), a Western Australia jugflower species. - Finally, several species, mostly rare and endangered, have been given common names based on the genus name adenanthos itself; for example A. ileticosAdenanthos ileticosAdenanthos ileticos is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It has roughly triangular, lobed leaves, and pale pink-red and cream, inconspicuous flowers. A rare species, it is known only from a single location in the south-west of Western Australia...
(Toolinna Adenanthos).
Distribution and habitat
The centre of diversity for the genus is SouthwestSouthwest Australia
Southwest Australia is a biodiversity hotspot that includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of Western Australia. The region has a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate, one of five such regions in the world...
Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, to which 31 of the 33 species are endemic. The south coast of Western Australia, between the Stirling Range
Stirling Range
The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 337 km south-east of Perth. It is located at approximately and is over 60 km wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranbrook...
and the Fitzgerald River
Fitzgerald River
The Fitzgerald River is a river in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.Surveyor General John Septimus Roe discovered and named the river during expeditions in the area in 1848 after the governor of Western Australia of the day, Charles Fitzgerald....
area, is particular diverse, with 17 species occurring on the Esperance Plains
Esperance Plains
Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia. Located on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton regions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region, it is a plain punctuated by granite and quartz outcrops and...
alone. This is one of two areas dominated by kwongan
Kwongan
Kwongan is a type of heathland found on the coastal plains of Western Australia. The name is derived from the language of the Noongar people. Kwongan comprises floristically-rich heath with dense thickets of sclerophyllous shrubs and isolated small trees...
heath
Heath (habitat)
A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...
, a vegetation complex renowned for its species richness and high levels of endemism; the other area of kwongan, further north on the west coast around Mount Lesueur
Mount Lesueur
Mount Lesueur is a near-circular, flat-topped mesa located 21 kilometres from Jurien Bay in Western Australia. It rises above the surrounding lateritic plain of Lesueur National Park which has eroded away around it....
, harbours surprisingly few Adenanthos species.
Species occur throughout most of the southwest. In northern areas, where there are fewer species, the genus does not extend into drier inland areas, being absent from northern parts of the Avon Wheatbelt
Avon Wheatbelt
Avon Wheatbelt is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.-Further reading:...
region. To the south, however, they extend well inland, extending even beyond the southwest into the neighbouring desert: A. argyreus
Adenanthos argyreus
Adenanthos argyreus is a species of erect shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia....
occurs as far inland as Southern Cross
Southern Cross, Western Australia
Southern Cross is a town in Western Australia, 371 kilometres east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. It was founded by gold prospectors in 1888, and gazetted in 1890. It is the major town and administrative centre of the Shire of Yilgarn...
.
Eastwards along the south coast, the genus occurs in disjunct populations on isolated pockets of siliceous sand surrounded by the calcareous soils of the Great Australian Bight
Great Australian Bight
The Great Australian Bight is a large bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.-Extent:...
. The most easterly occurrence in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
is at Twilight Cove.
The two species that occur outside southwest Western Australia are Adenanthos macropodianus
Adenanthos macropodianus
Adenanthos macropodianus, commonly known as Gland Flower, or Kangaroo Island Gland Flower, is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to Kangaroo Island in South Australia...
(Kangaroo Island Glandflower), which is endemic to Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Island. It is southwest of Adelaide at the entrance of Gulf St Vincent. Its closest point to the mainland is off Cape Jervis, on the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the state of South Australia. The island is long...
; and Adenanthos terminalis
Adenanthos terminalis
Adenanthos terminalis, commonly known as Gland Flower, Yellow Gland Flower or Adenanthos, is a one metre tall shrub in the Proteaceae family...
(Yellow Glandflower), which occurs in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
on the Eyre Peninsula
Eyre Peninsula
Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded on the east by Spencer Gulf, the west by the Great Australian Bight, and the north by the Gawler Ranges. It is named after explorer Edward John Eyre who explored some of it in 1839-1841. The coastline was first explored by...
and Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Island. It is southwest of Adelaide at the entrance of Gulf St Vincent. Its closest point to the mainland is off Cape Jervis, on the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the state of South Australia. The island is long...
, and from Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
eastwards into western Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
.
Ecology
A range of honeyeaterHoneyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea...
species have been observed feeding at Adenanthos flowers, including Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris (Eastern Spinebill), Anthochaera chrysoptera (Little Wattlebird), Phylidonyris pyrrhoptera (Crescent Honeyeater), Phylidonyris novaehollandiae (New Holland Honeyeater), Gliciphila melanops (Tawny-crowned Honeyeater), Zosterops lateralis (Silvereye) and Melithreptus brevirostris (Brown-headed Honeyeater). One study found that the amount of time that birds spent feeding at a site was strongly correlated with the abundance of Banksia sessilis (Parrotbush), and seemed unrelated to the amount of Adenanthos there; yet these birds nonetheless fed at Adenanthos flowers.