''Alloxylon'' is a genus of four species in the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...

of mainly small to medium-sized

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s. They are native to the eastern coast of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, with one species, '' A. brachycarpum'' found in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and the

Aru Islands The Aru Islands Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Aru) is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia. It also forms a regency of Maluku Province, with a land area of . At the 2011 Census the Regency had a po ...

. The genus is a relatively new creation, being split off from ''

Oreocallis ''Oreocallis'' is a South American plant genus in the family Proteaceae. There is only one species, ''Oreocallis grandiflora'', which is native to mountainous regions in Peru and Ecuador. Previously, the genus was considered to have several spe ...

''. The name is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''allo-'' "other" or "strange" and ''xylon'' or "wood" due to their unusual cell architecture compared with the related genera ''Telopea'' and ''Oreocallis''. In Australia, they are known as tree waratahs due to similarities in the inflorescences between them and the closely related '' Telopea''.

Classification

Together with '' Telopea'', ''

'' and ''

Embothrium ''Embothrium'' is a genus of two to eight species (depending on taxonomic interpretation) in the plant family Proteaceae, native to southern South America, in Chile and adjacent western Argentina; the genus occurs as far south as Tierra del Fuego ...

'', ''Alloxylon'' makes up a small group of terminal often red-flowering showy plants scattered around the southern edges of the

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The ''Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire. List of co ...

. Known as the subtribe

Embothriinae The Grevilleoideae are a subfamily of the plant family Proteaceae. Mainly restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, it contains around 46 genera and about 950 species. Genera include ''Banksia'', ''Grevillea'', and ''Macadamia''. Description T ...

, this is an ancient group with roots in the mid

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

, when

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

were linked by land.

Cultivation

They are grown for their incredibly showy flowers. Their large size and, in some cases, lengthy time to flower from seed, has limited their availability as garden plants. However ''

Alloxylon flammeum ''Alloxylon flammeum'', commonly known as the Queensland tree waratah or red silky oak, is a medium-sized tree of the family Proteaceae found in the Queensland tropical rain forests of northeastern Australia. It has shiny green elliptical leaves ...

'' has proven adaptable and hardy, while the others are more exacting in their requirements. All do best in a well-drained soil rich in organic material but low in

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

with some shelter when small.

Species

* ''

Alloxylon brachycarpum ''Alloxylon brachycarpum'' is a species of plant in the family Proteaceae. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It is threatened by habitat loss. Description ''Alloxylon brachycarpum'' grows as a tree reaching 20–40 m high, with a r ...

'' * ''

'' (

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

) (previously ''Oreocallis wickhamii'') * ''

Alloxylon pinnatum ''Alloxylon pinnatum'', known as Dorrigo waratah, is a tree of the family Proteaceae found in warm-temperate rainforest of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales in eastern Australia. It has shiny green leaves that are either pinnate ...

'' * ''

Alloxylon wickhamii ''Alloxylon wickhamii'' is a rainforest tree to tall in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the Wet Tropics of Queensland. In the wet tropics it is found growing in various well developed rain forests and apparently is "probably more abun ...

References

External links

Photo of A. pinnatum in flower
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2698344 Proteaceae genera Ornamental trees Taxa named by Michael Crisp Australasian realm flora Proteales of Australia