Persoonia rufa is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the a restricted area of New South Wales. It is an erect to spreading shrub with hairy young branchlets, elliptic leaves, and yellow flowers borne in groups of up to twelve on a rachis up to 110 mm (4.3 in), each flower with a leaf at its base.

Persoonia rufa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Genus: Persoonia
Species:
P. rufa
Binomial name
Persoonia rufa
Habit in the Gibraltar Range National Park

Description edit

Persoonia rufa is an erect to spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2.5 m (3 ft 3 in – 8 ft 2 in) and has smooth bark, and branchlets that are covered with brownish to rust-coloured hairs when young. The leaves are elliptical, 30–80 mm (1.2–3.1 in) long and 10–25 mm (0.39–0.98 in) wide. The flowers are arranged in groups of up to twelve along a rachis up to 110 mm (4.3 in) long, each flower on a pedicel 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) long with a leaf or scale leaf at its base. The tepals are yellow and 10–14 mm (0.39–0.55 in) long. Flowering occurs from December to February and the fruit is a drupe that is green or green with purple stripes.[2][3][4]

Taxonomy and naming edit

Persoonia rufa was first formally described in 1991 by Peter H. Weston and Lawrie Johnson from a specimen collected in the Gibraltar Range National Park in 1990 and the description was published in Telopea.[4][5] The specific epithet (rufa) refers to the reddish hairs on the young branchlets.[4]

Distribution and habitat edit

This geebung is restricted to the Gibraltar Range National Park where it grows in eucalypt forest on soils derived from granite.[4]

References edit

  1. ^ "Persoonia rufa". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Persoonia rufa L.A.S.Johnson & P.H.Weston". Flora of Australia Online. Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Government.
  3. ^ Weston, Peter H. "Persoonia rufa". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d Weston, Peter H.; Johnson, Lawrence A.S. (1 March 1991). "Taxonomic changes in Persoonia (Proteaceae) in New South Wales". Telopea. 4 (2): 298–299. doi:10.7751/telopea19914929.
  5. ^ "Persoonia rufa". APNI. Retrieved 4 November 2020.