Adenanthos cacomorphus
Encyclopedia
Adenanthos cacomorphus is a small 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...

 in the 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,...

. It is found in southwestern Australia.

Description

Adenanthos cacomorphus grows as a small lignotuberous shrub up to one metre (3 ft) high. The soft and hairy leaves are more or less triangular in shape with 3 to 5 (occasionally up to 7) apical lobes. The single pink flowers consist of a bright pink perianth about 2.5 cm (1 in) long, and a style up to 3.5 cm (1.6 in) long. They are seen over the warmer months from November to March.

It resembles its close relative 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....

, but has more deeply lobed leaves and a different flower colour.

Taxonomy

Botanical specimens of this species had been collected as far back as 1969, but the species was not published until 1978, when Irish botanist 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...

 issued a thorough revision of Adenanthos. He published this species based on a type specimen collected by Kenneth Newbey
Kenneth Newbey
Kenneth Raymond Newbey was a plant ecologist, botanical collector and horticulturist. Born in Katanning, Western Australia, he collected over 12000 specimens, from the Albany-Esperance, wheatbelt, goldfields and Pilbara regions of Western Australia...

 in Fitzgerald River National Park
Fitzgerald River National Park
Fitzgerald River National Park is a national park in Western Australia , southeast of Perth, in the Shire of Ravensthorpe and the Shire of Jerramungup....

 in 1974. Studies of the species' pollen prior to publication had shown that some pollen grains were "grossly misshapen", lacking their usual triangular shape, and having more than the usual three pores. He therefore chose the specific epithet cacomorpha from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 kakos ("ugly"), and morphe ("form").

Nelson followed 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 dividing Adenanthos into two sections, placing A. cacomorphus into 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...

 because its perianth tube is straight and not swollen above the middle. He further divided the section into two subsections, with A. cacomorpha placed into A. subsect. Adenanthos for reasons including the length of its perianth. However Nelson discarded his own subsections 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. By this time, the ICBN had issued a ruling that all genera ending in -anthos must be treated as having masculine gender, so A. cacomorpha became A. cacomorphus.

The placement of A. cacomorphus 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
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:...

 (4 species)
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...

A. drummondii
Adenanthos drummondii
Adenanthos 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....

A. dobagii
Adenanthos dobagii
Adenanthos 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...

A. apiculatus
Adenanthos apiculatus
Adenanthos 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....

A. linearis
Adenanthos linearis
Adenanthos 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....

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....

(2 subspecies)
A. gracilipes
A. venosus
A. dobsonii
A. glabrescens
Adenanthos glabrescens
Adenanthos 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:...

(2 subspecies)
A. ellipticus
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....

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....

A. ileticos
Adenanthos ileticos
Adenanthos 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...

A. forrestii
A. eyrei
Adenanthos eyrei
Adenanthos 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...

A. cacomorphus
A. flavidiflorus
A. argyreus
Adenanthos argyreus
Adenanthos argyreus is a species of erect shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia....

A. 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...

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...

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:...

(2 subspecies)
A. × cunninghamii
Adenanthos × cunninghamii
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.-Description:...

A. oreophilus
Adenanthos oreophilus
Adenanthos 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...

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...

(2 subspecies)
A. meisneri
Adenanthos meisneri
Adenanthos 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....

A. velutinus
A. filifolius
Adenanthos filifolius
Adenanthos filifolius is a species of erect shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia. It was first described by George Bentham in 1870....

A. labillardierei
Adenanthos labillardierei
Adenanthos 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...

A. acanthophyllus


A. cacomorphus has many characteristics shared with or intermediate between two species with which is co-occurs, 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. flavidiflorus. There are considered its closest relatives, and it is possible that A. cacomorphus originated as a hybrid between them.

Distribution and habitat

It is endemic to southern 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...

, restricted to the Fitzgerald River National Park
Fitzgerald River National Park
Fitzgerald River National Park is a national park in Western Australia , southeast of Perth, in the Shire of Ravensthorpe and the Shire of Jerramungup....

 and surrounds. Adenanthos cacomorphus is found in 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...

 growing on sand or sandy gravel.

Conservation

It is classified as Priority Two - Poorly Known on the Western Australia Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List. That is, it is a taxon which is known from few populations, at least some of which are not believed to be under immediate threat.

Cultivation

It is not known in cultivation, as it is fairly rare, and offers no advantages over the similar and more common A. cuneata.
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