Adenanthos sericeus
Encyclopedia
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.
but occasionally takes the habit of a small tree
up to 5 m (16 ft) tall. It has erect branches that are covered in short hairs when young, but these are lost with age. Leaves may be up to 40 mm (1.6 in) long, and repeatedly divide by threes into from 5 to 50 narrow laciniae, circular in cross-section, with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm (0.02 in).
Flowers are red, and occur alone or in small groups, hidden within the foliage at the end of branches. As with most other Proteaceae
, each flower is composed of a tubular perianth
of four united tepals, ending in a structure called a limb; and a single pistil, the stigma
of which is initially trapped inside the limb, but is released at anthesis
. In A. sericeus, the perianth is bright red, about 28 mm (1.1 in) long, hairy on the outside but smooth and hairless inside. The style is about 40 mm (1.6 in) long; being much longer than the perianth, it is very sharply bent for as long as the stigma remains trapped within the limb, and then springs erect. The fruit is an oval-shaped achene
about 5 mm (0.2 in) long.
in his 1805 Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen
, under the name Adenanthos sericea. No explicit etymology
for the specific name was given, but it is accepted that it is from the Latin
sericeus ("silky"), in reference to the very soft foliage.
Labillardière did not acknowledge any collector, and so it was long thought that Labillardière himself has collected the first botanical specimens. This was not obviously problematic, as A. sericeus does occur at Esperance Bay
, where Labillardière collected in December 1792. However, several Australian plant species described by Labillardière do not occur in any locations that he visited, suggesting that some of his specimens were obtained from some other collector whom he failed to credit. This prompted a re-evaluation of the type material by Ernest Charles Nelson
, who found several items of evidence suggesting that Labillardière could not have collected the specimens that he apparently used to describe the species:
Nelson concluded that Labillardière could not have collected this species, instead attributing collection to Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour
, who visited King George Sound in 1803 as a member of Nicolas Baudin
's voyage of exploration. This view has been accepted by some scholars though others treat it more cautiously.
published the first infrageneric arrangement of Adenanthos in Volume 5 of his landmark Flora Australiensis
. Bentham divided the genus into two sections, placing A. sericea in A. sect. Stenolaema because its perianth tube is straight and not swollen above the middle. This arrangement still stands today, though A. sect. Stenolaema is now renamed to the autonym
A. sect. Adenanthos
. Bentham also published a variety, A. sericea var. brevifolia (now A. macropodianus
) based on specimens collected from Kangaroo Island
in South Australia
.
This broad view of A. sericea continued into the 20th century, with several other species included in it, including A. oreophila and A. cygnorum
. The current, narrower circumscription originated with Nelson's 1970 investigation of Adenanthos. Nelson was interested in the problem of why there are so many plant species with disjunct distribution patterns in southern Australia. One such species was A. sericea, the Kangaroo Island form of which occurred about 2500 km (1600 mi) east of the nearest population of the Western Australian variety. This led Nelson to undertake a full taxonomic revision of Adenanthos, in the course of which he concluded that the Kangaroo Island form of A. sericea warranted species rank, primarily because leaves are much smaller and have fewer laciniae than the Western Australian A. sericea. In 1978 he published A. macropodiana and synonymized A. sericea var. brevifolia with it. He also published A. oreophila and clarified confusion between A. sericea and A. cygnorum. Finally, Nelson refined Bentham's arrangement by dividing A. sect. Adenanthos into two subsections, with A. sericea 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
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; thus the specific epithet became sericeus.
The placement of A. sericeus in Nelson's arrangement of Adenanthos
may be summarised as follows:
Adenanthos × cunninghamii
is considered a hybrid between A. sericeus subsp. sericeus and A. cuneatus
. It occurs in Torndirrup National Park
and sometimes at Two Peoples Bay, and back-crosses with A. cuneatus have also been found in the vicinity of King George Sound
. It can be distinguished from A. sericeus by its duller flowers, and by its foliage, which has very thick laciniae and, like, A. cuneatus, red new growth.
—a name applied to all Adenanthos species with deeply divided foliage—and various qualifications of this, including Coastal Woollybush, Tall Woollybush, and Albany Woollybush. However the last of these also refers to A. × cunninghamii, and Nelson has referred to it as "[a] name... so confused it is now almost useless." In the cut flower industry, which values its silvery foliage, the common names Smoke Bush and Australian Smoke Bush have also been used.
. A. sericeus subsp. sericeus occurs mostly around King George Sound
, extending west as far as Torbay Inlet
and east almost to Cape Riche; it sometimes occurs very close to the sea. There is then a gap of over 300 km (200 mi) to the populations of A. sericeus subsp. sphalma at Cape Le Grand. Another group of A. sericeus subsp. sphalma occurs 100 km (60 mi) further east at Cape Arid.
Both subspecies are calcifuge
, occurring only in siliceous sands derived from weathered granite
. Thus most populations are associated with granite monadnock
s. Though its range is restricted, it is locally common and often dominant
. A. sericeus subsp. sphalma is often found in association with Nuytsia floribunda, Kunzea baxteri
, and Xanthorrhoea
species.
It is susceptible to Phytophthora cinnamomi
dieback.
Though its flowers are inconspicuous, A. sericeus is considered an attractive garden plant for the colour and texture of its dense foliage. Its high tolerance of salt-laden winds makes it an excellent screen plant in coastal areas. In the Albany area, branches or entire potted plants are used as Christmas tree
s, since young plants are shaped like small pine trees but have a silky feel. One study of application of controlled-release fertiliser to A. sericeus in pots found it benefited from increasing levels of fertiliser, whereas other species plateaued at lower levels.
Propagation is by cuttings. These strike readily, but care must be taken not to mist the foliage too much, or it will rot. It requires very good drainage, and performs poorly in humid areas. Lacking a lignotuber
, it tolerates only light pruning.
Several cultivars have become available, including two developed and propagated in Israel.
The silvery foliage is used commercially in the cut flower industry. It has an unusually long vase life
: tests have yielded a vase life of 30 days, regardless of treatment or time of year.
South Coast Western Australia
South Coast Western Australia comprises the coastline in the state of Western Australia from Cape Leeuwin to Eucla. This is a distance of approximately 1,000 miles or 1,600 km, fronting the Great Australian Bight and the Southern Ocean.-Components:...
of 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 has bright red but small and obscure flowers, and very soft, deeply divided, hairy leaves.
Description
A very variable species, A. sericeus mostly grows as an upright, spreading shrubShrub
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...
but occasionally takes the habit of a 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...
up to 5 m (16 ft) tall. It has erect branches that are covered in short hairs when young, but these are lost with age. Leaves may be up to 40 mm (1.6 in) long, and repeatedly divide by threes into from 5 to 50 narrow laciniae, circular in cross-section, with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm (0.02 in).
Flowers are red, and occur alone or in small groups, hidden within the foliage at the end of branches. As with most other 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,...
, each flower is composed of a tubular 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...
of four united tepals, ending in a structure called a limb; and a single pistil, 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...
of which is initially trapped inside the limb, but is released 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...
. In A. sericeus, the perianth is bright red, about 28 mm (1.1 in) long, hairy on the outside but smooth and hairless inside. The style is about 40 mm (1.6 in) long; being much longer than the perianth, it is very sharply bent for as long as the stigma remains trapped within the limb, and then springs erect. The fruit is an oval-shaped achene
Achene
An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent...
about 5 mm (0.2 in) long.
Discovery and naming
This species was first described by Jacques LabillardièreJacques 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 his 1805 Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen
Novae 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...
, under the name Adenanthos sericea. No 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 specific name was given, but it is accepted that it is from the 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...
sericeus ("silky"), in reference to the very soft foliage.
Labillardière did not acknowledge any collector, and so it was long thought that Labillardière himself has collected the first botanical specimens. This was not obviously problematic, as A. sericeus does occur at 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,...
, where Labillardière collected in December 1792. However, several Australian plant species described by Labillardière do not occur in any locations that he visited, suggesting that some of his specimens were obtained from some other collector whom he failed to credit. This prompted a re-evaluation of the type material by 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...
, who found several items of evidence suggesting that Labillardière could not have collected the specimens that he apparently used to describe the species:
- The specimens are labelled as having come from the herbarium of René Louiche DesfontainesRené Louiche DesfontainesRené Louiche Desfontaines was a French botanist.Desfontaines was born near Tremblay in Brittany. He attended the Collège de Rennes and in 1773 went to Paris to study medicine. His interest in botany originated from lectures at the Jardin des Plantes given by Louis Guillaume Lemonnier...
, not that of Labillardière - The specimens belong to the King George SoundKing George SoundKing 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 ....
form of the species (since published as A. sericeus subsp. sericeusAdenanthos sericeus subsp. sericeusAdenanthos sericeus subsp. sericeus, commonly known as Coastal Woollybush, 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...
), which Labillardière could not have collected; whereas the Esperance BayEsperance BayEsperance 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,...
populations of this species belong to a distinctively different form (since published as A. sericeus subsp. sphalma). - Present-day Esperance Bay populations of A. sericeus are restricted to the granitic soils of Cape Le Grand at the extreme east of Esperance Bay, whereas Labillardière collected only in the vicinity of Observatory Island and Observatory Point, 30 km (20 mi) west of Cape Le Grand at the extreme west of Esperance Bay, where the soils are not of granitic origin.
Nelson concluded that Labillardière could not have collected this species, instead attributing collection to 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...
, who visited King George Sound in 1803 as a member of 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...
's voyage of exploration. This view has been accepted by some scholars though others treat it more cautiously.
Infrageneric placement
In 1870, George BenthamGeorge Bentham
George Bentham CMG FRS was an English botanist, characterized by Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".- Formative years :...
published the first infrageneric arrangement of Adenanthos in Volume 5 of his landmark 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 divided the genus into two sections, placing A. sericea in A. sect. Stenolaema because its perianth tube is straight and not swollen above the middle. This arrangement still stands today, though A. sect. Stenolaema is now renamed to the autonym
Autonym (botany)
In botanical nomenclature, autonyms are automatically created names, as regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature . Autonyms are cited without an author. Relevant provisions are in articles 6.8, 22.1-3 and 26.1-3....
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...
. Bentham also published a variety, A. sericea var. brevifolia (now 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...
) based on specimens collected from 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...
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...
.
This broad view of A. sericea continued into the 20th century, with several other species included in it, including A. oreophila and 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...
. The current, narrower circumscription originated with Nelson's 1970 investigation of Adenanthos. Nelson was interested in the problem of why there are so many plant species with disjunct distribution patterns in southern Australia. One such species was A. sericea, the Kangaroo Island form of which occurred about 2500 km (1600 mi) east of the nearest population of the Western Australian variety. This led Nelson to undertake a full taxonomic revision of Adenanthos, in the course of which he concluded that the Kangaroo Island form of A. sericea warranted species rank, primarily because leaves are much smaller and have fewer laciniae than the Western Australian A. sericea. In 1978 he published A. macropodiana and synonymized A. sericea var. brevifolia with it. He also published A. oreophila and clarified confusion between A. sericea and A. cygnorum. Finally, Nelson refined Bentham's arrangement by dividing A. sect. Adenanthos into two subsections, with A. sericea 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; thus the specific epithet became sericeus.
The placement of A. sericeus 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:
- AdenanthosAdenanthosAdenanthos 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. EurylaemaAdenanthos sect. EurylaemaAdenanthos 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. AdenanthosAdenanthos sect. AdenanthosAdenanthos 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. 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....
- A. 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...
- A. 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....
- A. 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....
- A. pungensAdenanthos pungensAdenanthos 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. 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:...
(2 subspecies) - A. ellipticus
- A. 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....
- A. 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....
- 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...
- A. forrestii
- A. 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...
- A. 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...
- A. flavidiflorus
- A. argyreusAdenanthos argyreusAdenanthos argyreus is a species of erect shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia....
- A. 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...
- A. terminalisAdenanthos terminalisAdenanthos terminalis, commonly known as Gland Flower, Yellow Gland Flower or Adenanthos, is a one metre tall shrub in the Proteaceae family...
- A. sericeus
- A. sericeus subsp. sericeusAdenanthos sericeus subsp. sericeusAdenanthos sericeus subsp. sericeus, commonly known as Coastal Woollybush, 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...
- A. sericeus subsp. sphalma
- A. sericeus subsp. sericeus
- A. × 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:...
- A. 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...
- A. 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...
(2 subspecies) - A. 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....
- A. velutinus
- A. filifoliusAdenanthos filifoliusAdenanthos filifolius is a species of erect shrub endemic to southwest Western Australia. It was first described by George Bentham in 1870....
- A. 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...
- A. acanthophyllus
- A. drummondii
- A. sect. Eurylaema
Subspecies and hybrids
Two subspecies are recognised:- A. sericeus subsp. sericeusAdenanthos sericeus subsp. sericeusAdenanthos sericeus subsp. sericeus, commonly known as Coastal Woollybush, 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...
is an autonymAutonym (botany)In botanical nomenclature, autonyms are automatically created names, as regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature . Autonyms are cited without an author. Relevant provisions are in articles 6.8, 22.1-3 and 26.1-3....
that encompasses the populations around King George SoundKing George SoundKing 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 ....
. The leaves of this subspecies are typically over 30 mm (1.2 in) long, and divided into many laciniae: average numbers range from 11 to 35, but individual leaves may have up to 50. - A. sericeus subsp. sphalma encompasses the populations at Cape Le Grand, which have smaller leaves typically divided into around 6 laciniae, and rarely more than 12. The existence of two subspecies was recognised by Nelson as early as 1975, but because of the confusion surrounding the type collection, Nelson treated this subspecies as encompassing the type material and therefore treated it as the autonymic subspecies. This error appeared in his doctoral thesis and on herbarium specimens annotations made by Nelson before 1977. This explains the subspecific epithet sphalma, from the LatinLatinLatin 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...
sphalmus ("mistake").
Adenanthos × 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:...
is considered a hybrid between A. sericeus subsp. sericeus and 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....
. It occurs in Torndirrup National Park
Torndirrup National Park
Torndirrup National Park is a national park in the Great Southern region of Western Australia , southeast of Perth and south of Albany. Torndirrup National Park has many impressive rock formations on the coast. These include the Gap, Natural Bridge and the Blowholes all shaped from the local...
and sometimes at Two Peoples Bay, and back-crosses with A. cuneatus have also been found in the vicinity of 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 ....
. It can be distinguished from A. sericeus by its duller flowers, and by its foliage, which has very thick laciniae and, like, A. cuneatus, red new growth.
Common names
Common names for A. sericeus include WoollybushWoollybush
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...
—a name applied to all Adenanthos species with deeply divided foliage—and various qualifications of this, including Coastal Woollybush, Tall Woollybush, and Albany Woollybush. However the last of these also refers to A. × cunninghamii, and Nelson has referred to it as "[a] name... so confused it is now almost useless." In the cut flower industry, which values its silvery foliage, the common names Smoke Bush and Australian Smoke Bush have also been used.
Distribution and habitat
Adenanthos sericeus has a disjunct distribution spanning about 500 km (300 mi) of the south coast of Western AustraliaWestern 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...
. A. sericeus subsp. sericeus occurs mostly around 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 ....
, extending west as far as Torbay Inlet
Torbay Inlet
Torbay Inlet is an estuarine inlet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia situated approximately East of Denmark.Torbay Inlet is a wave dominated estuary that functions primarily as a result of wave energy...
and east almost to Cape Riche; it sometimes occurs very close to the sea. There is then a gap of over 300 km (200 mi) to the populations of A. sericeus subsp. sphalma at Cape Le Grand. Another group of A. sericeus subsp. sphalma occurs 100 km (60 mi) further east at Cape Arid.
Both subspecies are calcifuge
Calcifuge
A calcifuge is a plant that does not tolerate alkaline soil. The word is derived from the Latin 'to flee from chalk'. These plants are also described as ericaceous, as the prototypical calcifuge is the genus Erica...
, occurring only in siliceous sands derived from weathered granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. Thus most populations are associated with granite monadnock
Monadnock
A monadnock or inselberg is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain...
s. Though its range is restricted, it is locally common and often dominant
Dominance (ecology)
Ecological dominance is the degree to which a species is more numerous than its competitors in an ecological community, or makes up more of the biomass...
. A. sericeus subsp. sphalma is often found in association with Nuytsia floribunda, Kunzea baxteri
Kunzea baxteri
Kunzea baxteri is a shrub in the family Myrtaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, where it occurs on granite outcrops and hills....
, and Xanthorrhoea
Xanthorrhoea
Xanthorrhoea is a genus of flowering plants native to Australia and a member of family Xanthorrhoeaceae, being the only member of subfamily Xanthorrhoeoideae. The Xanthorrhoeaceae are monocots, part of order Asparagales. There are 28 species and five subspecies of Xanthorrhoea.-Description:All are...
species.
Ecology
Both subspecies flower throughout the year, though A. sericeus subsp. sphalma flowers most between August and December.It is susceptible to Phytophthora cinnamomi
Phytophthora cinnamomi
Phytophthora cinnamomi is a soil-borne water mould that produces an infection which causes a condition in plants called root rot or dieback. The plant pathogen is one of the world's most invasive species and is present in over 70 countries from around the world.- Life cycle and effects on plants :P...
dieback.
Cultivation
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
s, since young plants are shaped like small pine trees but have a silky feel. One study of application of controlled-release fertiliser to A. sericeus in pots found it benefited from increasing levels of fertiliser, whereas other species plateaued at lower levels.
Propagation is by cuttings. These strike readily, but care must be taken not to mist the foliage too much, or it will rot. It requires very good drainage, and performs poorly in humid areas. Lacking 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...
, it tolerates only light pruning.
Several cultivars have become available, including two developed and propagated in Israel.
The silvery foliage is used commercially in the cut flower industry. It has an unusually long vase life
Vase life
Vase life is the period of time during which a cut flower or cut foliage retains its appearance in a vase. This is a major consideration in identifying plant species suitable for use in the cut flower industry, plants with a long vase life being far more desirable than those with a short vase life....
: tests have yielded a vase life of 30 days, regardless of treatment or time of year.