Daviesia speciosa Crisp (1995: 1237)

Crisp, Michael D., Cayzer, Lindy, Chandler, Gregory T. & Cook, Lyn G., 2017, A monograph of Daviesia (Mirbelieae, Faboideae, Fabaceae), Phytotaxa 300 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.300.1.1

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A05187DC-FF30-D2DC-FF3C-50978AC155FB

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Daviesia speciosa Crisp (1995: 1237)
status

 

85. Daviesia speciosa Crisp (1995: 1237) View in CoL . Type   GoogleMaps [approximate locality data given because the species is rare]: Western Australia   GoogleMaps , Irwin   GoogleMaps , Eneabba area, 29°50’S, 115°30’E, C. Chapman s.n., 8 April 1980. Holotype: CBG 8002488 About CBG ; isotypes: AD, BRI, CANB, K, L, MEL, MO, NSW, PERTH, US

Low shrubs with multiple stems ascending (or resprouting) from a woody rootstock, 0.3–0.8 m high and up to 1 m wide, glabrous, pruinose. Root anatomy with anomalous secondary thickening (cord type). Shoots terminated by a crown of phyllodes that abruptly reduce to scale leaves on lower parts of stems; branchlets terete, robust (2.5 mm diam.), with a pithy core, smooth when fresh, striate with wrinkled anastomosing veins when dry. Phyllodes erect, continuous with the branchlets and distinguishable from them only because the latter are subtended by phyllodes or

192 • Phytotaxa 300 (1) © 2017 Magnolia Press

CRISP ET AL.

scale-leaves, gently incurved, terete, rigid, apically acicular, robustly pungent, 15–80 mm long, ca. 2 mm diam.; scale-leaves black, subulate, 1–2 mm long. Juvenile phyllodes horizontally compressed, thick, linear. Unit inflorescences mostly subtended by scale-leaves below the crown of fully developed phyllodes, 1 per axil, condensed-racemose, 1(2)-flowered; peduncle 3–4 mm long; rachis 2–6 mm long; barren basal bracts imbricate, ovate, striate, 2–3 mm long; subtending bracts spreading, linear-spathulate, with margins incurved, striate, 8–10

A MONOGRAPH OF DAVIESIA

Phytotaxa 300 (1) © 2017 Magnolia Press • 193 mm long, red inside, pruinose outside. Pedicels filiform, difficult to distinguish from the stipe-like receptacle, 5–15 mm long. Flowers nodding, 22–25 mm long. Calyx ventricose, 8–11 mm long including the 3–4 mm receptacle; lobes nearly equal, acuminate, ca. 2 mm long, pruinose. Corolla red; standard ovate, entire, reflexing only 45–60°, remaining folded longitudinally and with margins incurved, thus appearing narrow, acute, tapered to base, deeply channelled at the base, ca. 20–23 × 15–17 mm including the 2–3 mm claw; wings narrowly ovate, acute, with apices incurved to expose the keel, giving the appearance of being beaked, not overlapping, auriculate, saccate, ca. 20–22 × 4.5–5 mm including the 2 mm claw; keel half ovate, falciform, acute, auriculate, ca. 23–25 × 5.5 mm including the 2.5–3.5 mm claw. Stamens weakly dimorphic: anthers all 2-celled; inner whorl of 5 with distinctly longer filaments and subdorsifixed, shorter anthers; outer whorl of 5 with shorter filaments and longer, basifixed anthers; filaments free, sigmoid and strongly compressed at base, becoming terete distally. Pod apparently never set. ( Fig. 85 View FIGURE 85 ).

Flowering period:— April and May. Fruiting period: Unknown.

Distribution:— Western Australia, Irwin, between Eneabba and Mingenew.

Habitat:— Gravelly soils in heath dominated by multiple species of Melaleuca , with Banksia and emergent Eucalyptus gittinsii .

Conservation status:— National: Endangered. WA: Endangered, Declared Rare Flora.

Selected specimens (12 examined:— Approximate locality data are given because the species is rare. WESTERN AUSTRALIA. Irwin: Near Mingenew , 29°10’S, 115°30’E, C. A GoogleMaps . Gardner s.n., September 1958 ( PERTH 5475694 About PERTH ); W of Winchester , 29°50’S, 115°30’E, C GoogleMaps . Chapman (3)76, 7 May 1976 ( CBG, MO, NSW, PERTH); ibid., C GoogleMaps . Chapman s.n., June 1979 ( CBG 7906517 About CBG ); S of Mingenew , 29°20’S, 115°30’E, M GoogleMaps . D. Crisp 10856, 24 September 2010 ( CANB, PERTH) .

Affinity:— Daviesia speciosa is one of the most bizarre species in the genus, and could not be confused with any other. Even though the flowers are modified and enlarged (presumably for bird-pollination, Crisp 1994, Toon et al. 2014), and despite the absence of pods, which are a diagnostic feature of the genus, this is clearly a Daviesia , as evidenced by the vegetative morphology and inflorescence structure. Only D. cunderdin and D. epiphyllum have similar, enlarged red flowers, apparently modified for specialised bird-pollination. Daviesia epiphyllum is the sister species of D. speciosa (clade VII.d, Fig. 1B View FIGURE 1 ) but may be readily distinguished by its flattened phylloclades with all phyllodes apparently reduced to scales, and smaller bracts (ca. 2 mm long), as well as subtle differences in the floral structure. Daviesia cunderdin can be easily distinguished by its elliptic to ovate phyllodes, the 1-flowered inflorescences and the smaller flowers (e.g. standard 12–15 mm long), with large, prominent calli on the standard-petal.

C

University of Copenhagen

A

Harvard University - Arnold Arboretum

W

Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

CBG

Australian National Botanic Gardens, specimens pre-1993

MO

Missouri Botanical Garden

NSW

Royal Botanic Gardens, National Herbarium of New South Wales

PERTH

Western Australian Herbarium

S

Department of Botany, Swedish Museum of Natural History

M

Botanische Staatssammlung München

CANB

Australian National Botanic Gardens

Kingdom

Plantae

Phylum

Tracheophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Fabales

Family

Fabaceae

Genus

Daviesia

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