Macropidia fuliginosa, the sole species of genus Macropidia, is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 rhizomatous

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

 flowering plant. Commonly known as the Black Kangaroo Paw, it is 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 Southwest Australia

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...

, specifically from Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 to Geraldton

Geraldton, Western Australia

Geraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...

 in the north of the region.

Description and reproduction

A small perennial herb with erect green-yellow leaves, occurring with a height between 0.2 to 1.8 metres in height. The leaves are strap-like, between 200 and 500 mm long, and tightly clustered around ground level. They emerge from a stem beneath the ground, a rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

, that allows the plants to regenerate after fire. Flowers occur in spring and summer on branched stem to a metre or more. Black hairs occur along the flowers and stems.

It is known to be pollinated by the following birds:

• Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
  Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
  The Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater is the only species in the genus Acanthegenys. It is large, for a honeyeater, ranging from 22 to 27 centimeters and weighing around 52 grams...
  
  
• Singing Honeyeater
  Singing Honeyeater
  The Singing Honeyeater, Lichenostomus virescens is a small bird found in Australia, and is part of the honeyeater family. Although it is common there, it is not very well known in other places....
  
  
• Brown Honeyeater
  Brown Honeyeater
  The Brown Honeyeater is a honeyeater, a group of birds found mainly in Australia and New Guinea which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding...
  
  
• Tawny-crowned Honeyeater
  Tawny-crowned Honeyeater
  The Tawny-crowned Honeyeater is a passerine bird native to eastern Australia.The Tawny-crowned Honeyeater was originally described by ornithologist John Latham in 1802 as Certhia melanops...
  
  
• White-cheeked Honeyeater
  White-cheeked Honeyeater
  The White-cheeked Honeyeater inhabits the east coast and the south-west corner of Australia. It has a large white patch on its cheek, a brown eye, and a yellow panel on its wing.- Description :...
  
  
• Red Wattlebird
  Red Wattlebird
  The Red Wattlebird , also known as Barkingbird or Gillbird, is a honeyeater; a group of birds found mainly in Australia and New Guinea which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding...
  
  

It can be germinated from seed for cultivation, but commercial production use tissue cultures as a means of propagation. This species is not as widely seen as the Kangaroos Paws of Anigozanthus , whose species are hardier and more successfully cultivated.

It is classified as 'Not threatened', within the Western Australian Flora Conservation Taxa.

Name

The name kangaroo paw is given for the flowering branches resemblance to a kangaroo

Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...

s forearm. The 'black' species is contained by a monotypic genus, eleven other similar plants of this name are contained by the genus Anigozanthus. The generic name Macropidia refers to the kangaroo genus Macropus

Macropus

Macropus is a marsupial genus that belongs to the family Macropodidae, it has 14 species which are further divided into 3 subgenera. The genus includes all terrestrial kangaroos, wallaroos and several species of wallaby. The term itself is derived from the Ancient Greek makros "long" and pous...

; fuliginosa is from the Latin for soot (fuligo) referring to the black colouration. The description of the species in the Botanical Magazine in 1847, then known only from dried specimens, gave the common name Sooty Anigozanthos.

Disease

When affected by disease it can be burned back to the ground and will regrow from the rhizome. Like many Australian natives it can withstand bushfire in the wild. It is subject to fungal diseases such as the ink-spot fungus, and the rust fungus Puccinia haemodora.