Laurel geebung | |
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Scientific classification
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Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Proteales |
Family: | Proteaceae |
Genus: | Persoonia |
Species: | P. laurina
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Binomial name | |
Persoonia laurina | |
Synonyms [1] | |
Persoonia ferruginea
Sm. |
Persoonia laurina, commonly known as the laurel-leaved or laurel geebung, is a shrub of the family Proteaceae native to central New South Wales in eastern Australia. Found in sclerophyll forest, it grows to a height of 2 metres (6 ft 7 in). The yellow flowers appear in late spring.
Persoonia laurina was one of five species described by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in his 1805 work Synopsis Plantarum, [2] from material collected by John White in 1793 and 1794. [3] The species name refers to a resemblance to Laurus "laurel". [4] James Edward Smith described this species as the rusty persoonia (Persoonia ferruginea) in his 1805 book Exotic Botany. [5] The horticulturist Joseph Knight used Smith's name in his controversial 1809 work On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae, [6] as did Robert Brown in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. Brown also recognised that the two names were the same species. [7]
In 1870, George Bentham published the first infrageneric arrangement of Persoonia in Volume 5 of his landmark Flora Australiensis. He divided the genus into three sections, placing P. ferruginea in P. sect. Amblyanthera. [8]
Within the genus, P. laurina is classified in the Laurina group, a group of three species from southeastern Australia that all have a lignotuber. [9]
Three subspecies are recognised. [10] First recorded as distinct in 1981, they were officially described as subspecies in 1991 by Lawrie Johnson and Peter Weston of the New South Wales Herbarium. [11]
Persoonia laurina grows as a shrub with an upright or sprawling habit reaching anywhere from 0.2 to 2 metres (7+3⁄4 in to 6 ft 6+3⁄4 in) tall. New growth is covered with dense grey to rusty-brown hairs. Flowering takes place over November to January. [3] Seedlings have only two cotyledon leaves, unlike many members of the genus, which have more. [9]
All three subspecies resprout after bushfire from a woody lignotuber. Subspecies laurina is estimated to have a lifespan of 50 to 100 years. [12]
The bark was traditionally used by Aboriginal people to soak fishing lines and toughen them. [4] Drupes were eaten by indigenous people on the Beecroft Peninsula, though were not as highly regarded as those of P. lanceolata. [13]
P. laurina is an attractive plant with horticultural potential. Cultivating it would most likely require good water drainage, a position in sun or dappled shade and acidic soil. It is hardy to frosts. [14] However, it appears to be short-lived in cultivation, with plants at the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens surviving for a maximum of six years after planting out. [9] While difficult to propagate by seed, [4] it has been easier to propagate by cuttings of new growth. [9]
foliis ovatis coriaceis, flor. racemosis tomentosis
Persoonia.