Isopogon scabriusculus explained

Isopogon scabriusculus is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a shrub with cylindrical, or narrow flat, sometimes forked leaves, and spherical to oval heads of pink or red flowers.

Description

Isopogon scabriusculus is a shrub that typically grows to about high and wide, with reddish brown or greyish branchlets. The leaves are cylindrical, grooved or flat and narrow, up to long, sometimes forked with the undivided part up to long. The flowers are mostly arranged on the ends of branchlets, in sessile, spherical to oval heads up to in diameter with overlapping, egg-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are red or pink, sometimes hairy and the fruit is a hairy nut about long, fused with others in a spherical head up to long in diameter.^[1]

Taxonomy

Isopogon scabriusculus was first formally described in 1856 by Carl Meissner in de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.^{[2] [3]} (Meissner had previously published the name Isopogon scabriusculus in 1852 but without a description.)^{[4] [5]}

In 1995, Donald Bruce Foreman described three subspecies of I. scabriusculus in Flora of Australia and the names are accepted at the Australian Plant Census.

• Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. pubifloris Foreman^[6] is a shrub up to tall with simple, cylindrical leaves up to long, hairy pink flowers up to long from September to November, and fruiting cones up to about diameter.^[7]
• Isopogon scabriusculus Meisn. subsp. scabriusculus^[8] is a shrub up to tall with flat, sometimes three-lobed leaves up to long, glabrous pink flowers up to long from July to October, and fruiting cones up to about diameter.^[9]
• Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. stenophyllus Foreman^[10] is a shrub up to tall with simple, grooved leaves oval in cross-section, up to long, glabrous red or pink flowers up to long from July to October, and fruiting cones about diameter.^[11]

The specific epithet (scabriusculus) means "minutely scabrous",^[12] pubiflorus means "softly hairy-flowered" and stenophyllus means "narrow-leaved".

Distribution and habitat

Isopogon scabriusculus is widespread in the south-west of Western Australia where it grows on sandplains and ridges. Subspecies pubifloris grows in scrub, shrubland and woodland between Hyden, Southern Cross, Coolgardie, Lake King and the Frank Hann National Park. Subspecies scabriusculus grows in mallee, scrub and heath between Mullewa and Newdegate and subspecies stenophyllus grows in heath and shrubland, mainly between Wubin, Southern Cross and Newdegate.

Conservation status

All three subspecies of I. scabriusculus are classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Isopogon scabriusculus . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 27 November 2020.
2. Web site: Isopogon scabriusculus. APNI. 27 November 2020.
3. Book: Meissner . Carl . de Candolle . Augustus P. . Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis . 1856 . Sumptibus Victroris Masson . Paris . 276–277 . 27 November 2020.
4. Web site: Isopogon scabriusculus. APNI. 27 November 2020.
5. Meissner . Carl . A list of Proteaceae collected in south-western Australia by Mr James Drummond. . Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany . 1852 . 4 . 182 . 27 November 2020.
6. Web site: Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. pubifloris. Australian Plant Census. 26 November 2020.
7. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. pubifloris . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 27 November 2020.
8. Web site: Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. scabriusculus. Australian Plant Census. 26 November 2020.
9. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. scabriusculus . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 27 November 2020.
10. Web site: Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. pubifloris. Australian Plant Census. 26 November 2020.
11. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Isopogon scabriusculus subsp. stenophyllus . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 27 November 2020.
12. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 3rd.