Isopogon, commonly known as conesticks, conebushes or coneflowers,[3] is a genus of about forty species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, and are endemic to Australia. They are shrubs with rigid leaves, bisexual flowers in a dense spike or "cone" and the fruit is a small, hairy nut.

Isopogon
Isopogon cuneatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Subfamily: Proteoideae
Tribe: Leucadendreae
Subtribe: Isopogoninae
Genus: Isopogon
R.Br. ex Knight[1]
Type species
Isopogon anemonifolius[2]
Species

39 species (see text)

Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium
Isopogon anethifolius, Maranoa Gardens
Infructescence of Isopogon anemonifolius

Description

edit

Plants in the genus Isopogon are erect or prostrate shrubs with rigid, usually compound, rarely simple leaves. Compound leaves are deeply divided with flat or cylindrical lobes. The flowers are usually arranged on the ends of branches, usually surrounded by bracts, in a more or less conical or spherical spike. Each flower is bisexual and symmetrical, the tepals spreading as the flower develops, the lower part persisting until the fruit expands. The fruit are fused to form a woody cone-like to more or less spherical structure, each fruit a nut with bracts that eventually fall and release the fruit. Isopogon have 13 haploid chromosomes.[3][4][5][6][7]

Taxonomy

edit

The genus Isopogon was first formally described in 1809 by Joseph Knight in On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae, preempting publication of the same name by Robert Brown in his book On the natural order of plants called Proteaceae.[2][8]

Species list

edit

The following is a list of species, subspecies and varieties of Isopogon accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at November 2020:[9]

Two new species of Isopogon, I. autumnalis (10 December 2019)[10][11] and I. nutans (5 May 2020)[12][13] have been described but the names have not been accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at November 2020.

References

edit
  1. ^ "Isopogon". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Isopogon". APNI. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b Foreman, Donald B. "Isopogon". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  4. ^ Harden, Gwen J. "Isopogon". Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  5. ^ Foreman, Donald B. "Isopogon". Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Isopogon". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  7. ^ Ramsay, H. P. (1963). "Chromosome numbers in the proteaceae". Australian Journal of Botany. 11: 1. doi:10.1071/BT9630001.
  8. ^ Knight, Joseph (1809). On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae. London: William Savage. pp. 93–94. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  9. ^ "Isopogon R.Br. ex Knight". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  10. ^ "Isopogon autumnalis". APNI. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  11. ^ Rye, Barbara L.; Macfarlane, Terry D. (10 December 2019). "A new name, clarification of synonymy, and a new subspecies for Isopogon (Proteaceae) in Western Australia" (PDF). Nuytsia. 30: 309–316. doi:10.58828/nuy00931. S2CID 257673202. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  12. ^ "Isopogon nutans". APNI. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  13. ^ Rye, Barbara L.; Hislop, Michael (5 May 2020). "Sixty years in the making: Isopogon nutans (Proteaceae), a new species with pendulous flower heads" (PDF). Nuytsia. 31: 95–99. doi:10.58828/nuy00953. S2CID 257681778. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  • Foreman, DB (1995). "Isopogon". In McCarthy, Patrick (ed.). Flora of Australia: Volume 16: Eleagnaceae, Proteaceae 1. CSIRO Publishing / Australian Biological Resources Study. pp. 194–223. ISBN 0-643-05693-9.
edit