Laurel geebung
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Genus: Persoonia
Species:
P. laurina
Binomial name
Persoonia laurina
Synonyms[1]

Persoonia ferruginea Sm.
Persoonia monticola Gand.
Persoonia maidenii Gand.

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.

Taxonomy

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]

Description

Subspecies leiogyna with fruit, near Kowmung River

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]

Ecology

All three subspecies resprout after bushfire from a woody lignotuber. Subspecies laurina is estimated to have a lifespan of 50 to 100 years.[12]

Uses and cultivation

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]

References

  1. ↑ "Persoonia laurina Pers". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  2. ↑ Persoon, Christiaan Hendrik (1805). Synopsis plantarum, seu enchiridium botanicum, complectens enumerationem systematicam specierum hucusque cognitarum (in Latin). Vol. 1. Paris, France: Apud Carol. Frid. Cramerum. p. 118. foliis ovatis coriaceis, flor. racemosis tomentosis
  3. 1 2 "Persoonia laurina Pers". Flora of Australia Online. Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Government.
  4. 1 2 3 Wrigley, John; Fagg, Murray (1991). Banksias, Waratahs and Grevilleas. Sydney, New South Wales: Angus & Robertson. p. 488. ISBN 0-207-17277-3.
  5. ↑ Smith, James Edward (1805). Exotic Botany: consisting of coloured figures, and scientific descriptions, of such new, beautiful, or rare plants as are worthy of cultivation in the gardens of Britain; with remarks on their qualities, history, and requisite modes of treatment. Vol. 2. London, United Kingdom: R. Taylor & Co. p. 47.
  6. ↑ Knight, Joseph; Salisbury, Richard (1809). On the Cultivation of the Plants Belonging to the Natural Order of Proteeae. London, United Kingdom: W. Savage. p. 100. Persoonia.
  7. ↑ Brown, Robert (1810). Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. London, United Kingdom: Richard Taylor and Company. p. 373.
  8. ↑ Bentham, George (1870). "Persoonia". Flora Australiensis. Vol. 5. London, United Kingdom: L. Reeve & Co. pp. 380–83.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Weston, Peter H. (2003). "Proteaceae subfamily Persoonioideae: Botany of the Geebungs, Snottygobbles and their Relatives". Australian Plants. 22 (175): 62–78 [66]. ISSN 0005-0008.
  10. ↑ Weston, P.H. "New South Wales Flora Online: Persoonia laurina". Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia.
  11. ↑ Weston, Peter H.; Johnson, Lawrence Alexander Sydney (1991). "Taxonomic changes in Persoonia (Proteaceae) in New South Wales". Telopea. 4 (2): 369–406 [281–83]. doi:10.7751/telopea19914929.
  12. ↑ Benson, Doug; McDougall, Lyn (2000). "Ecology of Sydney Plant Species Part 7b: Dicotyledon families Proteaceae to Rubiaceae". Cunninghamia. 6 (4): 1017–1202 [1104–1105].
  13. ↑ Lampert, R. J.; Sanders, Frances (1973). "Plants and Men on the Beecroft Peninsula, New South Wales". The Australian Journal of Anthropology. 9 (2): 96–108. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1973.tb01380.x.
  14. ↑ Elliot, Rodger W.; Jones, David L.; Blake, Trevor (1997). Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation. Vol. 7: N–Po. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Lothian Press. p. 219. ISBN 0-85091-634-8.
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