Marianthus drummondianus explained

Marianthus drummondianus is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a shrub, herb, or slender twiner with elliptic leaves and white, blue or purple flowers arranged in small clusters.

Description

Marianthus drummondianus is a shrub, herb or slender climber with hairy new shoots. Its adult leaves are elliptic, long, wide and sessile. The leaves are hairy at first, but become glabrous with age, apart from on the margins. The flowers are borne in small groups on pendent, softly-hairy peduncle up to long. The sepals are linear, blue and hairy, about long. The five petals are spatula-shaped, white, blue or purple and long. Flowering mainly occurs from August to October.[1] [2]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1845 by Alois (Aloys) Putterlick who gave it the name Oncosporum drummondianum in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae.[3] [4] In 1863, George Bentham transferred the species to Marianthus as M. drummondianus in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.[5] The specific epithet (drummondianus) honours James Drummond.[6]

Distribution and habitat

Marianthus drummondianus grows in open woodland and forest on slopes, near creeks and on roadsides from the Darling Range near Perth to the Porongurup National Park, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Marianthus drummondianus . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 18 June 2023.
  2. Cayzer . Lindy . Crisp. Mike . Reinstatement and revision of the genus Marianthus (Pittosporaceae) . Australian Systematic Botany . 2004 . 17 . 1 . 127-44 . 10.1071/SB03029.
  3. Web site: Oncosporum drummondianum. APNI. 18 June 2023.
  4. Book: Putterlick . Alois . Lehmann . Johann G.C. . Plantae Preissianae . 1 . 1845 . Sumptibus Meissneri . Hamburg . 194–195 . 18 June 2023.
  5. Web site: Marianthus bicolor. APNI . 13 June 2023.
  6. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 187 . 3rd.