Adenanthos sect. Eurylaema
Encyclopedia
Adenanthos sect. Eurylaema is a taxonomic section
Section (botany)
In botany, a section is a taxonomic rank below the genus, but above the species. The subgenus, if present, is higher than the section, and the rank of series, if present, is below the section. Sections are typically used to help organise very large genera, which may have hundreds of species...

 of 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...

 genus Adenanthos
Adenanthos
Adenanthos is an genus of Australian native shrubs 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...

(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,...

). It comprises four species, all of which are endemic to 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.

Description

The section is characterised by flowers in which the stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

 on the back of the style 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 the style end is broad and flattened.

Taxonomy

The section was first described and published by George Bentham
George Bentham
George Bentham CMG FRS was an English botanist, characterized by Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".- Formative years :...

 in the 1870 fifth volume of his landmark work Flora Australiensis
Flora Australiensis
Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory, more commonly referred to as Flora Australiensis, and also known by its standard abbreviation Fl. Austral., is a seven-volume flora of Australia published between 1863 and 1878 by George Bentham, with the assistance of...

. Bentham listed several diagnostic characters for the species including the bent and dilated perianth-tube; the sterility of one of the four anthers; the broad, flattened style-end; flat, entire leaves; and axillary flowers. He did not give an etymology for the epithet Eurylaema, but Ernest Charles Nelson
Ernest Charles Nelson
Ernest Charles Nelson is a botanist who specialises in the Proteaceae family, especially the Adenanthos genus; and the Ericaceae, especially Erica. He is the author of over 20 books and more than 150 research papers...

 states that it comes from eurys ("broad") and laemos ("neck"), referring to the dilated perianth-tube. Bentham also did not designate a 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 section; Nelson has since defined 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...

to be its 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...

.

When published by Bentham in 1870, A. sect. Eurylaema comprised only two species, A. barbigera (now 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...

) and A. obovata (now A. obovatus). Four years later, Ferdinand von Mueller
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

 published 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:...

, referring it to this section.

In 1978, Nelson published a comprehensive taxonomic revision of Adenanthos. He retained A. sect. Eurylaema, making no change to its circumscription, but discarded many of Bentham's diagnostic characters, retaining only the sterile anther and the shape of the style-end. The following year, Nelson formally described and named A. × pamela
Adenanthos × pamela
Adenanthos × 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...

, a naturally occurring hybrid of A. detmoldii and A. obovatus. Despite both parents belonging to this section, initially he did not assign the hybrid to it; he did so, however, in his 1995 treatment of Adenanthos for the Flora of Australia
Flora of Australia (series)
The Flora of Australia is a 59 volume series describing the vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens present in Australia and its external territories...

series of monographs.

The placement and circumscription of A. sect. Eurylaema in Nelson's arrangement of Adenanthos
Nelson's taxonomic arrangement of Adenanthos
Ernest Charles Nelson's taxonomic arrangement of Adenanthos was the first modern-day arrangement of that plant genus. First published in his 1978 Brunonia article "A taxonomic revision of the genus Adenanthos ", it superseded the arrangement of George Bentham, which had stood for over a hundred years...

 may be summarised as follows:
Adenanthos
Adenanthos
Adenanthos is an genus of Australian native shrubs 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...

A. sect. Eurylaema
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:...

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...

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...

A. × pamela
Adenanthos × pamela
Adenanthos × 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...

A. sect. Adenanthos
Adenanthos sect. Adenanthos
Adenanthos sect. Adenanthos is a taxonomic section of the flowering plant genus Adenanthos . It comprises 29 species. The centre of diversity is southwest Western Australia, with two species extending into South Australia and western Victoria.-Description:The section is characterised by flowers in...

(29 species, 8 subspecies)

Distribution and habitat

All four species in A. sect. Eurylaema are endemic to southwest Western Australia.
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