Isopogon alcicornis explained

Isopogon alcicornis, commonly known as the elkhorn coneflower, is a plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to part of the South Coast Western Australia. It is a low shrub with pinnately-lobed leaves and oval heads of hairy, white or pink flowers.

Description

Isopogon alcicornis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of about and has hairy pale brown to gray branchlets. The leaves are mostly pinnately lobed with two to five flat lobes, linear to lance-shaped and long on a petiole up to or sometimes longer. The flowers are arranged in sessile, oval or elliptic heads up to in diameter on the ends of branchlets, each head with hairy, pink flowers often hidden by the leaves. There are hairy, spatula-shaped involucral bracts at the base of the flowering head. Flowering mainly occurs from October to November and the fruit is a hairy nut, fused in an oval head up to in diameter.[1]

Taxonomy

Isopogon alcicornis was first formally described in 1903 by Ludwig Diels in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie.[2] [3]

Distribution and habitat

Elkhorn coneflower grows in low shrubland on the near Esperance and on Mount Baring near the Cape Arid National Park in the south-west of Western Australia.

Conservation status

This isopogon is classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Isopogon alcicornis . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 19 November 2020.
  2. Web site: Isopogon alcicornis. APNI. 19 November 2020.
  3. Diels . Ludwig . Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae occidentalis. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Pflanzen Westaustraliens, ihrer Verbreitung und ihrer Lebensverhaltnisse. . Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie . 1904 . 35 . 1 . 134–136 . 19 November 2020.
  4. Web site: Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna. Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. 19 November 2020.