Adenanthos oreophilus
Encyclopedia
Adenanthos oreophilus, commonly 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...

, is a species of tall shrub 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
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...

. It is closely related to the better known 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:...

(Albany Woollybush), and was only classified as a species distinct from the latter in 1978 by Irish botanist E. 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...

.

Description

Adenanthos oreophilus grows as an erect shrub up to 2 m (7 ft) in height, with erect branches. It lacks 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...

. Like many Adenanthos species, its leaves are deeply divided into long, soft, slender laciniae, in this case trisegmented into three or five laciniae. The flowers are scarlet. The 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 is from 27 to 35 mm long, and the style around 40 mm.

This species is very similar in appearance to its close relative 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:...

, having, in particular, almost identical flowers. However the leaves of A. sericea are divided into many more laciniae, which are thinner than those of A. oreophilus.

Taxonomy

Botanical collections attributable to this species date back at least to the middle of the 19th century, but the taxon was long regarded merely as a form of A. sericeus. It was not until 1978 that Irish botanist E. 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...

 published it as a distinct species. He based his concept of the species on a specimen collected by him in 1973 from East Mount Barren in 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....

. He gave it the specific epithet oreophila 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...

 terms oreos ("mountain") and philos ("beloved"), in reference to the species occurrence only on mountain ranges.

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. oreophila 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 fairly straight, and not swollen above the middle. He further divided the section into two subsections, with A. oreophila 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. oreophila became A. oreophilus.

The placement of A. oreophilus 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
Adenanthos cacomorphus
Adenanthos 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...

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
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

Nelson states that there are subtle morphological differences between taxa in different populations, which may merit recognition as distinct subspecies, but to date no such subspecies have been published.

Distribution and habitat

Adenanthos oreophilus has an unusually disjunct distribution for an Adenanthos species. The main populations are found on East Mount Barren, and south to 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....

, but there are also outlying populations at Mount Desmond, as well as Mount Ragged and a hill referred to by Nelson as 'Hill 62', the last two of which are located about 500 km (310 mi) east of the Barren Ranges. It grows on rocky hillslopes in laterite
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...

 or siliceous sand, among tall scrub.

Cultivation

Nelson reports cultivating this species at the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

as part of morphological studies, but beyond that it is little known in cultivation. It may has potential as a "foliage contrast" for gardens in areas with reliable winter rainfall.
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