Telopea oreades
Encyclopedia
Telopea oreades, commonly known as the Gippsland-, Mountain- or Victorian Waratah, is a large shrub or small tree from southeastern Australia
in the family Proteaceae
. It is a plant of wet forest and rainforest. Several cultivars that are hybrid forms with T. speciosissima
have been developed, such as the 'Shady Lady' series, and are commercially available.
and their stems have a distinct reddish tinge. The shiny dark green leaves are arranged alternately along the stems. The leaves are narrow-obovate to spathulate, and measure 11 to 28 cm long and 1.5 to 6 cm wide. They have a sunken midrib on the upperside (and corresponding ridge on the underside) with four to six pairs of lateral veins visible at a 45 degree angle to the midline. They veer and converge to form an easily seen vein which runs around 0.5 cm (0.2 in) inside the leaf margin. The undersurface is paler and greyer. Flowering occurs between October and December in its native range, with plants at higher elevations flowering later than ones at lower altitude. The crimson flowerheads, known as inflorescence
s, composed of 36 to 60 individual flowers with green to pink bract
s, which may be up to 3 cm (1.2 in) long. These are followed by curved leathery to woody fruits that are 5 to 7.5 cm (2-3 in) long, which somewhat resemble a boat in shape. These ripen the following May to September, and split open to reveal (and spill) 10-16 seeds. Arranged in two columns, the winged, flat brown seeds are around 1 cm (0.4 in) long with a roughly rectangular wing 3.5-4 cm (1.6-2.4 in) long. New shoots often grow through flowerheads.
It can be difficult to distinguish from T. mongaensis
though the leaves of the latter species are more prominently veined.
in 1861 in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae
, from material collected from Nungatta Creek. Its species name is derived from the Ancient Greek
oreos "mountain" and hence means "of or relating to a mountain". The only alternative scientific name proposed was in 1891, when Otto Kuntze
named it as Hylogyne oreades, but it was rejected as a nomen illegitimum
.
Telopea oreades is one of five species from southeastern Australia which make up the genus Telopea. It has been difficult to distinguish from the similar T. mongaensis, but microscopic analysis has revealed that T. oreades has microscopic features termed sclereids while T. mongaensis does not.
The genus lies in the subtribe Embothriinae, along with the tree waratahs (Alloxylon
) from eastern Australia and New Caledonia, and Oreocallis
and Chilean firetree (Embothrium coccineum
) from South America. Almost all these species have red terminal flowers, and hence the subtribe's origin and floral appearance must predate the splitting of Gondwana
into Australia, Antarctica, and South America over 60 million years ago.
s of coastal ranges and tableland escarpments in two disjunct areas of southeastern Australia. The first is centred on East Gippsland
in Victoria, from Orbost
to the vicinity of Eden
across the border in far southeastern New South Wales. There is a more northerly population around the Monga Valley near Braidwood, New South Wales
extending to Moss Vale. Plants in Victoria are found at altitudes ranging from 200 metres in Lind National Park
to 1300 metres on Mount Ellery
. Associated tree species in Victoria include Messmate (Eucalyptus obliqua
), Mountain Grey Gum (Eucalyptus cypellocarpa
), Cut-tail (Eucalyptus fastigata
), Silvertop Ash (Eucalyptus sieberi
), Southern Sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum) and Black Oliveberry (Elaeocarpus holopetalus
).
The species is known to produce hybrids with T. mongaensis where the two species occur together in the southern Monga Valley, although for the most part the species grow together there without hybridising.
in 1990 as 'Errindundra White'. Plantsmen have also developed several hybrids with T. oreades
, looking to combine the hardiness of this species with the showier flowerheads of the latter. Red, pink and even white flowered cultivars are available.
The timber is fairly hard and resembles silky oak (Grevillea robusta
). It is durable, yet can be readily polished and worked with, and is amenable for use in furniture, picture frames and tool handles.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
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 a plant of wet forest and rainforest. Several cultivars that are hybrid forms with T. speciosissima
Telopea speciosissima
Telopea speciosissima, commonly known as the New South Wales waratah or simply waratah, is a large shrub in the plant family Proteaceae. It is endemic to New South Wales in Australia and is the floral emblem of that state...
have been developed, such as the 'Shady Lady' series, and are commercially available.
Description
Telopea oreades grows as a large shrub or narrow tree 9-19 m (30-65 ft) high with a trunk reaching 45 to 60 cm (18-24 in) in diameter. Greyish brown, the trunk is thin in relation to the tree's height and not buttressed. Its surface is smooth with horizontal lenticels and warty protuberances. Smaller branches are more brown and smooth. Young plants have a much more erect habit than other members of the genus TelopeaTelopea
Telopea can refer to:*A genus of shrubs, usually known as Waratahs.*Telopea , a botanical journal named after the genus.*Telopea, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia.*Telopea Park School...
and their stems have a distinct reddish tinge. The shiny dark green leaves are arranged alternately along the stems. The leaves are narrow-obovate to spathulate, and measure 11 to 28 cm long and 1.5 to 6 cm wide. They have a sunken midrib on the upperside (and corresponding ridge on the underside) with four to six pairs of lateral veins visible at a 45 degree angle to the midline. They veer and converge to form an easily seen vein which runs around 0.5 cm (0.2 in) inside the leaf margin. The undersurface is paler and greyer. Flowering occurs between October and December in its native range, with plants at higher elevations flowering later than ones at lower altitude. The crimson flowerheads, known as inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s, composed of 36 to 60 individual flowers with green to pink bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
s, which may be up to 3 cm (1.2 in) long. These are followed by curved leathery to woody fruits that are 5 to 7.5 cm (2-3 in) long, which somewhat resemble a boat in shape. These ripen the following May to September, and split open to reveal (and spill) 10-16 seeds. Arranged in two columns, the winged, flat brown seeds are around 1 cm (0.4 in) long with a roughly rectangular wing 3.5-4 cm (1.6-2.4 in) long. New shoots often grow through flowerheads.
It can be difficult to distinguish from T. mongaensis
Telopea mongaensis
Telopea mongaensis, commonly known as the Monga Waratah or Braidwood Waratah, is a shrub or small tree in the Proteaceae family. Endemic to Australia, it grows at high altitude in south eastern New South Wales. It bears many red flowerheads in spring, each made up of 28 to 65 individual flowers,...
though the leaves of the latter species are more prominently veined.
Taxonomy
The Gippsland Waratah was first formally described by botanist Ferdinand von MuellerFerdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...
in 1861 in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae
Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae
Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae is a series of papers authored by the Victorian Government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in which he published many of his approximately 2000 descriptions of new taxa of Australian plants. The papers were issued in 94 parts between 1858 and 1882 and published in...
, from material collected from Nungatta Creek. Its species name is derived 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...
oreos "mountain" and hence means "of or relating to a mountain". The only alternative scientific name proposed was in 1891, when Otto Kuntze
Otto Kuntze
Otto Carl Ernst Kuntze was a German botanist.-Biography:Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig.An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled Pocket Fauna of Leipzig. Between 1863 and...
named it as Hylogyne oreades, but it was rejected as a nomen illegitimum
Nomen illegitimum
A nomen illegitimum is a technical term, used mainly in botany. It is usually abbreviated as nom. illeg..-Definition:...
.
Telopea oreades is one of five species from southeastern Australia which make up the genus Telopea. It has been difficult to distinguish from the similar T. mongaensis, but microscopic analysis has revealed that T. oreades has microscopic features termed sclereids while T. mongaensis does not.
The genus lies in the subtribe Embothriinae, along with the tree waratahs (Alloxylon
Alloxylon
Alloxylon is a genus of five species in the Proteaceae family of mainly small to medium-sized trees. They are native to the eastern coast of Australia, with one species, A. brachycarpum found in New Guinea and the Aru Islands. The genus is a relatively new creation, being split off from Oreocallis...
) from eastern Australia and New Caledonia, and Oreocallis
Oreocallis
Oreocallis is a genus in the family Proteaceae. There is only one species, O. grandiflora. This plant is native to mountainous regions in Peru and Ecuador in South America....
and Chilean firetree (Embothrium coccineum
Embothrium coccineum
Chilean firetree, Chilean firebush, Notro in Spanish , is a small evergreen tree in the family Proteaceae. It grows in the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina....
) from South America. Almost all these species have red terminal flowers, and hence the subtribe's origin and floral appearance must predate the splitting of Gondwana
Gondwana
In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
into Australia, Antarctica, and South America over 60 million years ago.
Distribution and habitat
Telopea oreades occurs in moist forests and temperate rainforestRainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
s of coastal ranges and tableland escarpments in two disjunct areas of southeastern Australia. The first is centred on East Gippsland
East Gippsland
East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114....
in Victoria, from Orbost
Orbost, Victoria
Orbost is a town in the Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, located east of Melbourne and south of Canberra where the Princes Highway crosses the Snowy River. It is about from the town of Marlo on the coast of Bass Strait. At the 2006 census, Orbost had a population of 2452...
to the vicinity of Eden
Eden, New South Wales
Eden is a coastal town in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The town, south of the state capital Sydney near the border with Victoria, is located between Nullica Bay to the south and Calle Calle Bay, the northern reach of Twofold Bay, and built on undulating land adjacent to a...
across the border in far southeastern New South Wales. There is a more northerly population around the Monga Valley near Braidwood, New South Wales
Braidwood, New South Wales
Braidwood is a town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, in Palerang Shire. It is located on the busy Kings Highway linking Canberra to Batemans Bay on the coast. It is about 200 kilometres south west of Sydney and about 60 kilometres inland from the coast...
extending to Moss Vale. Plants in Victoria are found at altitudes ranging from 200 metres in Lind National Park
Lind National Park
Lind National Park is a national park in eastern Gippsland, in Victoria, Australia, 353 kilometres east of Melbourne. It is situated on the Princes Highway between Orbost and Cann River....
to 1300 metres on Mount Ellery
Mount Ellery
Mount Ellery , is a mountain 11 kilometres south of Goongerah, East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.-External links:* * Samuel Calvert...
. Associated tree species in Victoria include Messmate (Eucalyptus obliqua
Eucalyptus obliqua
Eucalyptus obliqua, commonly known as Australian Oak, Brown Top, Brown Top Stringbark, Messmate, Messmate Stringybark, Stringybark and Tasmanian Oak, is a hardwood tree native to south-eastern Australia....
), Mountain Grey Gum (Eucalyptus cypellocarpa
Eucalyptus cypellocarpa
Mountain Grey Gum also known as the Mountain Gum, Monkey Gum or Spotted Mountain Grey Gum, is a straight, smooth barked forest tree. Often seen around 20 to 40 metres tall...
), Cut-tail (Eucalyptus fastigata
Eucalyptus fastigata
Brown Barrel or Cut-Tail is a common eucalyptus tree of south eastern Australia.It can grow in excess of 60 metres in height, though is mostly seen between 30 and 45 metres tall. Brown Barrel grows in cooler areas of high rainfall with fertile soils...
), Silvertop Ash (Eucalyptus sieberi
Eucalyptus sieberi
Eucalyptus sieberi, the Silvertop Ash or Black Ash is a common eucalyptus tree of south eastern Australia. The range of distribution is in the higher rainfall areas, from near sea level to high altitude...
), Southern Sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum) and Black Oliveberry (Elaeocarpus holopetalus
Elaeocarpus holopetalus
Elaeocarpus holopetalus is a small rainforest tree of eastern Australia. It grows from near the Snowy River to Chaelundi National Park in northern New South Wales. It grows at high altitude in gullies....
).
The species is known to produce hybrids with T. mongaensis where the two species occur together in the southern Monga Valley, although for the most part the species grow together there without hybridising.
Ecology
The prominent position and striking colour of Telopea oreades and many of its relatives within the subtribe Embothriinae both in Australia and South America strongly suggest it is adapted to pollination by birds, and has been for over 60 million years.Cultivation and uses
A selected white-flowered form from the Errinundra Plateau, which was originally known as 'Plateau View Alba' or 'Plateau View White' was registered by the Australian Cultivar Registration AuthorityAustralian Cultivar Registration Authority
The Australian Cultivar Registration Authority is the International Cultivar Registration Authority for Australian plant genera, excluding those genera or groups for which other ICRAs have been appointed...
in 1990 as 'Errindundra White'. Plantsmen have also developed several hybrids with T. oreades
Telopea speciosissima
Telopea speciosissima, commonly known as the New South Wales waratah or simply waratah, is a large shrub in the plant family Proteaceae. It is endemic to New South Wales in Australia and is the floral emblem of that state...
, looking to combine the hardiness of this species with the showier flowerheads of the latter. Red, pink and even white flowered cultivars are available.
- Telopea 'Champagne' is a cultivar registered under Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) in 2006. Its creamy yellow flowerheads appear from October to December. It is a three-way hybrid between T. speciosissima, T. oreades and the yellow-flowered form of T. truncataTelopea truncataTelopea truncata, commonly known as the Tasmanian Waratah, is a large shrub in the Proteaceae family. It is endemic to Tasmania in Australia.-Description:...
. - Telopea 'Golden Globe' is a cultivar registered under PBR in 2005. Larger than 'Champagne', it is also a three-way hybrid between T. speciosissima, T. oreades and the yellow-flowered form of T. truncata. It has been propagated and sold as 'Shady Lady Yellow'. It was originally bred in the Dandenongs east of Melbourne.
- Telopea 'Shady Lady' is a larger shrub which may reach 5 m (16 ft) high and 2 or 3 m (6–10 ft) wide. A hybrid of T. speciosissima and T. oreades, it arose by chance in a Melbourne garden. The flowerheads are smaller and lack the bracts of the speciosissima parent. As its name suggests, it tolerates more shade.. It is vigorous and more reliable in temperate and subtropicalSubtropicsThe subtropics are the geographical and climatical zone of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropical zone, which is bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitudes 23.5°N and 23.5°S...
areas, and grows in semi-shade or sun. 'Shady Lady Crimson', 'Shady Lady Red' and 'Shady Lady Pink' are three selected commercially available colour forms. - Telopea 'Shady Lady White' is a white hybrid between T. speciosissima and T. oreades.
The timber is fairly hard and resembles silky oak (Grevillea robusta
Grevillea robusta
Grevillea robusta, commonly known as the southern silky oak or Silky-oak, or Australian Silver-oak, is the largest species in the genus Grevillea. It is a native of eastern coastal Australia, in riverine, subtropical and dry rainforest environments receiving more than 1,000 mm per year of...
). It is durable, yet can be readily polished and worked with, and is amenable for use in furniture, picture frames and tool handles.