Cyanothamnus ramosus explained

Cyanothamnus ramosus is a species of plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect, mostly glabrous shrub with pinnate leaves with up to seven leaflets, and white, four-petalled flowers with blue or pale green backs.

Description

Cyanothamnus ramosus is a slender, erect, mostly glabrous, woody shrub which grows to a height of 30sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1. The leaves are pinnate, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and have between three and seven leaflets on a petiole long. The leaflets are long. There are up to three flowers arranged in the leaf axils on pedicels long. The four sepals are thick, glabrous and egg-shaped, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The petals are white with blue or pale green backs, broadly elliptic, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and prominently glandular. Flowering occurs from May to October.[1]

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley who gave it the name Cyanothamnus ramosus and published the description in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony.[2] [3] In 1863, George Bentham changed the name to Boronia ramosa.[4] In a 2013 paper in the journal Taxon, Marco Duretto and others restored Lindley's name Cyanothamnus ramosus on the basis of cladistic analysis.[5] The specific epithet (ramosus) is a Latin word meaning "full of branches".[6]

In 1971 and 1998, Paul Wilson described three subspecies in the journal Nuytsia.[7] [8] The names have subsequently been changed to reflect the change in the genus name:

Distribution and habitat

Cyanothamnus ramosus grows on slopes and hillsides, sometimes in disused gravel pits and is widespread in the southwest from near Shark Bay to near Esperance. Subspecies anethifolius occurs between the Murchison River, the Stirling Range and Cape Le Grand, subspecies lesueuranus is only known from near Mt Lesueur and subspecies ramosus mainly from the Darling Range.

Conservation status

Cyanothamnus ramosus is classed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife, but subspecies lesueuranus is listed as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.[11]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Duretto . Marco F. . Wilson . Paul G. . Ladiges . Pauline Y. . Boronia ramosa . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra . 20 April 2019.
  2. Web site: Cyanothamnus ramosus. APNI. 20 April 2019.
  3. Book: Lindley . John . A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colonly (Appendix) . 1839 . James Ridgway . Piccadilly . xviii . 8 May 2019.
  4. Web site: Boronia ramosa. APNI. 20 April 2019.
  5. Duretto . Marco F. . Heslewood . Margaret M. . Bayly . Michael J. . Boronia (Rutaceae) is polyphyletic: Reinstating Cyanothamnus and the problems associated with inappropriately defined outgroups . Taxon . 2020 . 69 . 3 . 481–499 . 10.1002/tax.12242. 225836058 .
  6. Book: Brown. Roland Wilbur. The Composition of Scientific Words. 1956. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C.. 648.
  7. Wilson . Paul G. . Taxonomic notes on the family Rutaceae, principally of Western Australia . Nuytsia . 1971 . 1 . 2 . 201 . 20 April 2019.
  8. Wilson . Paul G. . New names and new taxa in the genus Boronia (Rutaceae) from Western Australia, with notes on seed character . Nuytsia . 1998 . 12 . 1 . 151–152 . 20 April 2019.
  9. Web site: Cyanothamnus ramosus subsp. anethifolius . Plants of the World Online . 22 September 2021.
  10. Web site: Cyanothamnus ramosus subsp. lesueuranus . Plants of the World Online . 22 September 2021.
  11. Web site: Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna. Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. 22 September 2021.