Daviesia laxiflora explained

Daviesia laxiflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Victoria, Australia. It is a large shrub or small tree with drooping branches, linear to narrow elliptic phyllodes and long racemes of mostly bright yellow flowers.

Description

Daviesia laxiflora is a shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of up to, and has drooping branches. Its phyllodes are linear to narrowly elliptic, long, wide and wavy with minutely scalloped edges. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils on up to five racemes, each with many flowers on peduncles long, the rachis usually long, each flower on a pedicel long with a bract long at the base. The sepals are long and joined at the base, the upper two lobes joined for most of their length and the lower three triangular and about long. The standard petal is elliptic, long and bright yellow with brownish-red markings, the wings long and yellow with brownish-red markings, and the keel long. Flowering occurs from October and January and the fruit is a strongly flattened, triangular pod long.[1] [2]

Taxonomy and naming

This daviesia was first formally described in 1957 by James Hamlyn Willis who gave it the name Daviesia corymbosa var. laxiflora in The Victorian Naturalist from specimens he collected in 1940.[3] [4] In 1991, Michael Crisp raised the variety to species status as Daviesia laxiflora in Australian Systematic Botany.[5] The specific epithet (laxiflora) means "loose-flowered".[6]

Distribution and habitat

Daviesia laxiflora mostly grows in moist, montane forests at altitudes of in eastern Victoria, with a disjunct population at Wilsons Promontory .

Notes and References

  1. Crisp . Michael D. . Cayzer . Lindy . Chandler . Gregory T. . Cook . Lyn G. . A monograph of Daviesia (Mirbelieae, Faboideae, Fabaceae) . Phytotaxa . 2017 . 300 . 1 . 126–127 . 10.11646/phytotaxa.300.1.1. free .
  2. Web site: Jeanes . Jeff A. . Daviesia laxiflora . Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria . 3 February 2022.
  3. Web site: Daviesia corymbosa var. laxiflora. APNI. 3 February 2022.
  4. Willis . James H. . Vascular flora of Victoria and South Australia (sundry new species, varieties, combinations, records and synonymies) continued . The Victorian Naturalist . 1957 . 73 . 11 . 190–191 . 3 February 2022.
  5. Web site: Daviesia laxiflora. APNI. 3 February 2022.
  6. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 236 . 3rd.