''Billardiera speciosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to southern Western Australia. It is a slender climber that grows in coastal heath and has narrowly elliptic leaves with the edges rolled under and groups of purple or mauve flowers.

Description

''Billardiera speciosa'' is slender climber that has sessile, narrowly elliptic leaves long, about wide and often in clusters. The edges of the leaves are rolled under and there is a small point on th tip. The flowers are arranged in groups with

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s long at the base. The sepals are green, hairy and long and the petals are spatula-shaped, purple or mauve, long, and fade as they age. Flowering occurs in February.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1837 by

Stephan Endlicher Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna. Bio ...

who gave it the name ''Pronaya speciosa'' in '' Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel'' from an unpublished description by

Charles von Hügel Charles von Hügel (born Carl Alexander Anselm Baron von Hügel; 25 April 1795 – 2 June 1870), sometimes spelt in English Huegel, was an Austrian nobleman, army officer, diplomat, botanist, and explorer, now primarily remembered for his tra ...

of a specimen collected by Ferdinand Bauer near King George Sound. In1862,

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

transferred the species to the genus ''Billardiera'' in ''The Plants Indigenous to the Colony of Victoria''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''speciosa'') means "showy".

Distribution and habitat

''Billardiera speciosa'' grows in coastal heath on limestone between East Mount Barren and Duke of Orleans Bay in the Esperance Plains bioregions of southern Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15589195

speciosa Speciosa (foaled 28 April 2003) is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. In a racing career which lasted from June 2005 and October 2007 she ran seventeen times and won four races. As a two-year-old, she won two of her six race ...

Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Stephan Endlicher Plants described in 1837