Daviesia villifera A.Cunn. ex Bentham (1837a: 12)

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

57. Daviesia villifera A.Cunn. ex Bentham (1837a: 12) , Crisp (1990: 247), Crisp (1995: 1244), Crisp (2002: 527). Daviesia squarrosa Smith (1805: 507) var. villifera (A.Cunn. ex Benth.) Bentham (1864: 80) . Type: ‘In collibus dumosis prope Moreton Bay. A. Cunningham...(v.s.)’. Lectotype ( Crisp 1990: 247): Bushy hills vicy. of Moreton Bay, N.S. Wales, [A. Cunningham], 1824 (W); isolectotype: BM, K (3 specimens on 2 sheets ex Herb. Hooker), CGE,?G

Open shrubs commonly 1.5–2 m high; hispid all over vegetative parts, usually including the phyllode lamina. Root anatomy unknown. Branchlets arching, terete, ribbed. Phyllodes crowded, divaricate or reclinate, broadly to narrowly ovate or somewhat cordiform, acuminate with a long, tapering, pungent apex, undulate, basally subcordate to cuneate, articulate, 5–10(–12) × 2–6 mm, green, midrib prominent above, venation reticulate, often obscure. Unit inflorescences 1(2) per axil, flowers solitary or 2 in an umbel; peduncle 0.5–1.1 mm long; bracts ascending, oblong or narrowly oblong; subtending bracts 0.4–0.8 mm long, 0.25–0.45 mm broad. Pedicels 1.5–8.5 mm long. Calyx 2.4–2.9 mm long including 0.6–0.8 mm receptacle; lobes ca. 0.6 mm long; upper 2 united in a truncate emarginate lip; lower 3 broadly triangular. Corolla : standard reflexed, depressed-ovate, emarginate, scarcely auriculate, ca. 5.0 × 5.75 mm including the 1–1.5 mm claw, 2 small calli present at the base of the lamina, yellow with a thin red jagged line (expanding basally) surrounding the rich yellow bilobed central spot; wings obovate, apex rounded to nearly truncate and incurved, scarcely enclosing the keel, auriculate, ca. 5 × 2.5 mm including the 1.5 mm claw, yellow distally, dark red towards base; keel narrowly ovate, strongly falcate (almost Ushaped), beaked, slightly auriculate, slightly saccate, ca. 4.75 × 1.5 mm including the 1.5 mm claw and 1.25 mm beak, dull red. Stamens strongly dimorphic: inner whorl of 5 with longer, slender, terete filaments and very broad-ovoid, versatile anthers with confluent thecae; outer whorl of 5 with shorter, broader, compressed filaments and longer, oblong, broad-ovoid, basifixed, 2-celled anthers; filaments free. Pod obliquely shallowly to very shallowly obtriangular, acuminate, compressed, 9–11 × 5–7 mm; upper suture strongly sigmoid; lower suture scarcely acute to scarcely obtuse. Seed obovoid, compressed, ca. 3.6 mm long, ca. 1.9 mm broad, ca. 0.9 mm thick, red-brown; aril thickly lobed, ca. 1.7 mm long. ( Fig. 57 ).

Chromosome number:— 2n = 18 (voucher Sands 639.5.1, cited as D. squarrosa var. villifera by Sands 1975).

Flowering period:— June to October; mainly August and September. Fruiting period: September and October.

Distribution:— Mainly in south-eastern to central Queensland, from Brisbane north-west to the Mt Playfair area; also around Grafton on the north coast of New South Wales.

Habitat:— Generally on hilly terrain, usually on skeletal, sandy to clay soils derived from sedimentary rocks, especially sandstone. Associated vegetation is typically open forest dominated by eucalypts such as Corymbia citriodora (Hook. in Mitchell 1848: 235) K.D. Hill & Johnson (1995: 388).

Selected specimens (45 examined):— QUEENSLAND: Leichhardt: Carnarvon National Park, 450 m N of Mt Playfair Road at 24.7 km W of turnoff from Salvator Rosa access road, 24°46’S, 146°56’E, M . D. Crisp 11734, 31 August 2016 ( BRI, CANB). Mitchell: Bull Creek Gorge area , ca. 24°40’S, 146°40’E, B . O’Keefe 651, 20 September 1984 ( BRI). Leichhardt: Isla Gorge , ca. 29 km SW of Theodore, 25°09’S, 149°57’E, S. L . Everist 8030, 28 September 1968 ( BRI, MEL, NSW). Burnett: Ironpot Creek , 40 km W of Kingaroy, 26°40’S, 151°25’E, R . Croll s.n., 27 June 1968 ( MEL 0080419 A). Moreton: Everton Hills, Henderson Road , 27°23’S, 152°58’E, M . D. Crisp 7833 & I. R . Telford, 29 August 1986 ( BRI, CBG); 10 km N of Helidon , 27°30’S, 152°09’E, B . Muffet M5 / 303, 6 September 1975 ( CBG); Griffith University site, Kessels Road, Mt Gravatt , 27°32’S, 153°02’E, P . Sharpe 785, 20 September 1973 ( BRI); Dinmore Pottery , 27°36’S, 152°50’E, L. S . Smith 12175, 19 October 1964 ( BRI); Tamborine Mt , 27°55’S, 153°10’E, C. T . White 7139, 27 September 1930 ( BRI) . NEW SOUTH WALES. North Coast: Gwydir Hwy, 39 km from Grafton towards Glen Innes, 29°36’S, 152°35’E, M . D. Crisp 7389 & I. R . Telford, 1 October 1984 ( BRI, CBG, NSW) .

Affinity:— Daviesia villifera is similar to all members of the D. squarrosa group, but differs from all other members except D. pubigera in its abundant hispid hairs on the vegetative parts, particularly the lamina of the phyllode. Daviesia pubigera —and its close relative D. filipes , which is usually hispid but occasionally glabrous— are easily distinguished from D. villifera by their narrowly ovate or oblong phyllodes with ± recurved margins and a keel which is neither falcate nor beaked. In D. quoquoversus , D. nova-anglica and D. squarrosa , the phyllode is glabrous except on the midrib and margins. The closest relative of D. villifera is probably D. quoquoversus , with which it shares a distinctive beak on the keel (lacking in D. nova-anglica and D. squarrosa ). Daviesia

A MONOGRAPH OF DAVIESIA

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quoquoversus differs in having irregularly bent hairs on the branchlets, as well as in lacking hairs on the phyllode lamina.

Figures

FIGURE 57. Daviesia villifera. A. Flowering branchlet. B. Phyllode, adaxial view. C. Inflorescence (1-flowered). D. Calyx opened out, upper lobes at left. E. Standard. F. Wing. G. Keel. H. Pod. A from Crisp 7833; B from Muffet M5/303; C–G from Crisp 7389; H from Everist 8030. Drawn by J. Rosenberg and A.L. Prowse. Adapted from Crisp (1990) with permission from CSIRO Publishing.