Marianthus erubescens explained

Marianthus erubescens is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a woody, glabrous shrub or climber, with narrowly elliptic leaves and down-curved, red flowers arranged groups of three to six.

Description

Marianthus erubescens is a glabrous, woody shrub or climber with reddish stems. Its adult leaves are narrowly elliptic, long and wide on a petiole up to long. The flowers are borne in groups of three to six on down-curved peduncles up to long, each flower on a pedicel long. The sepals are long, of unequal sizes, and fall off as the flowers mature. The five petals are red and joined to form a curved tube long. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a spindle-shaped capsule long.[1] [2] [3]

Taxonomy

Marianthus erubescens was formally described in 1839 by Alois (Aloys) Putterlick in Novarum Stirpium Decades of specimens collected by John Septimus Roe in the Swan River Colony.[4] [5] The specific epithet (erubescens) means "reddening" or "blushing".[6]

Distribution and habitat

This species of marianthus grows in woodland, shrubland or mallee, on sandplains and breakaways, on granite outcrops or limestone between Morawa, Merredin, the Stirling Ranges and Cape Naturaliste in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Marianthus erubescens . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 22 June 2023.
  2. Book: Corrick . Margaret G. . Fuhrer . Bruce A. . Wildflowers of Southern Western Australia . 2009 . Rosenberg Publishing Pty. Ltd. . Dural, New South Wales . 9781877058844 . 149.
  3. Web site: Marianthus erubescens. Australian Native Plants Society (Australia). 22 June 2023.
  4. Web site: Marianthus erubescens. APNI. 22 June 2023.
  5. Book: Putterlick . Alois . Endlicher . Stephan . Fenzl . Edouard . Novarum Stirpium Decades . 1839 . 60–61 . 22 June 2023.
  6. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 193 . 3rd.