''Conospermum incurvum'', commonly known as plume smokebush,
is a shrub endemic to
Western Australia.
Description
It grows as a prostrate little-branched shrub, the stems densely covered in slender, pointed leaves from seven to 30 millimetres long, and 0.5 to 0.8 millimetres wide. Although prostrate, it has erect flower stalks that give it a height of up to a metre. Inflorescence with numerous clusters of tubular, wooly, white flowers, 6mm long, in winter to spring and occur in elongated
panicle
A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...
s. Compounds from this plant are currently being investigated for medicinal use.
Taxonomy
It was first published in
John Lindley
John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist.
Early years
Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...
's 1839 ''
A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony
"A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony", also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Sketch Veg. Swan R.'', is an 1839 article by John Lindley on the flora of the Swan River Colony. Nearly 300 new species were published in it, ...
'', based on unspecified material.
Its taxonomic history since that time has been entirely without incident, with neither synonyms nor infrageneric taxa being published.
In 1995,
Eleanor Bennett
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
The name was introdu ...
published a treatment of ''
Conospermum
''Conospermum'' is a genus of about 50 species in the family Proteaceae that are endemic to Australia. Members of the genus are known as smokebushes - from a distance, their wispy heads of blue or grey flowers resemble puffs of smoke. They hav ...
'' for the ''
Flora of Australia'' series of monographs, placing ''C. incurvum'' in ''Conospermum''
subg. ''Conospermum'',
sect. ''Eriostachya'',
subsect. ''Multibracteata''. It is the type species of the subsection. Its closely relative is ''
C. brachyphyllum'', from which it may be distinguished by its more densely clustered leaves.
Distribution and habitat
It occurs in undulating sandplains of white, grey or yellow/brown sand over
laterite
Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
, ranging from
Eneabba south to
Perth.
Thus it primarily occurs in the
Swan Coastal Plain
The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...
and
Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic regions. There are also some outlying populations in the
Avon Wheatbelt and
Jarrah Forest regions, and a single population in the
Esperance Plains region north of
Albany.
Ecology
It is not considered threatened.
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5162327
Eudicots of Western Australia
incurvum