''Emblingia'' is a monospecific plant genus containing the species ''Emblingia calceoliflora'', a herbaceous prostrate subshrub endemic to
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. It has no close relatives, and is now generally placed alone in family Emblingiaceae.
Description
It is a
perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
,
herb
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
aceous prostrate
subshrub
A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Der ...
, with simple
petiolate leaves with "cartilaginous" (hard and tough, resembling cartilage) margins. The irregular, solitary flowers are white, cream, yellow, green or, pink, and occur from August to November. It has a non-fleshy fruit.
Taxonomy
The genus and species were first published in 1861 by
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 ...
in ''
Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'', based on specimens collected in the
Murchison region by
Pemberton Walcott and
Augustus Frederick Oldfield
Augustus Frederick Oldfield (1821–1887) was an English botanist and zoologist who made large collections of plant specimens in Australia.
Oldfield was born on 12 January 1821 in London, England. He made botanical collections in Tasmania, the coa ...
.
Placement of the genus within a family has previously been considered a difficult problem; it has at various times been placed in
Capparaceae
The Capparaceae (or Capparidaceae), commonly known as the caper family, are a family of plants in the order Brassicales. As currently circumscribed, the family contains 33 genera and about 700 species. The largest genera are '' Capparis'' (about ...
,
Sapindaceae
The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee.
The Sapindaceae occur in tempera ...
,
Goodeniaceae
Goodeniaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Asterales. It contains about 404 species in twelve genera. The family is distributed mostly in Australia, except for the genus ''Scaevola (plant), Scaevo ...
and, in the
Cronquist system
The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including ''The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants'' (1968; 2nd edition, 1988) a ...
,
Polygalaceae
The Polygalaceae or the milkwort family are made up of flowering plants in the order Fabales. They have a near-cosmopolitan range, with about 27 genera and ''ca''. 900 known species of herbs, shrubs and trees. Over half of the species are in one ...
.
In 1965,
Herbert Kenneth Airy Shaw
Herbert Kenneth Airy Shaw (7 April 1902 – 1985) was a notable English botanist and classicist.
Airy Shaw was born at The Mount, Grange Road, Woodbridge, Suffolk to a father serving as Second Master at the Woodbridge Grammar School and a mother ...
erected Emblingiaceae for the genus, and that family is now used for the genus in the
APG II
The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in April 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Gr ...
,
Dahlgren,
Reveal,
Stevens,
Takhtajan
Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian ( hy, Արմեն Լևոնի Թախտաջյան; russian: Армен Леонович Тахтаджян; surname also transliterated Takhtadjan, Takhtadzhi︠a︡n or Takhtadzhian, pronounced takh-tuh-JA ...
and
Thorne systems.
Molecular analyses have confirmed the genus's placement in the
Brassicales
The Brassicales (or Cruciales) are an order (biology), order of flowering plants, belonging to the eurosids II group of dicotyledons under the APG II system. One character common to many members of the order is the production of glucosinolate (mu ...
.
Distribution and habitat
It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
, occurring in grey, yellow or red sand, on undulating sandplains of the west coast. It is most common in the
Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth.
At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...
and
Carnarvon biogeographic
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...
regions, but also occurs on the north western edge of the
Avon Wheatbelt
The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.
Geography
The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...
.
Ecology
It is not considered to be threatened.
References
Further reading
*
Mueller, Ferdinand von (1861) ''
Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'' 2(15).
*
Shaw, H. K. Airy (1965) ''
Kew Bulletin
The ''Kew Bulletin'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal on plant and fungal taxonomy and conservation published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Articles on palynology, cytology, anatomy, ...
'' 18:257.
*
*
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15712127, from2=Q151001, from3=Q2220445
Rosids of Western Australia
Monotypic Brassicales genera
Brassicales
Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller
Endemic flora of Western Australia