''Lomatia ilicifolia'', commonly known as holly lomatia or native holly, is a plant in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

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 ...

and 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 south-eastern

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 ...

. It is a stiff, erect shrub with hairy, rust-coloured new growth and which recovers from fire from a lignotuber. It has dull green, leathery, prickly, holly-like leaves and long sprays of cream flowers, usually after fire.

Description

''Lomatia ilicifolia'' is a stiff, erect shrub which grows to a height of and has its young foliage and flower buds covered with rust-coloured hairs. The leaves are dull green, leathery and holly-like, mostly glabrous and egg-shaped to lance-shaped or elliptic. They are long, wide, have sharp teeth along their edges and a prominent network of veins. The flowers are arranged on the ends of the stems in a spike-like

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 ...

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

long, each flower on a stalk long. The flowers are white or cream-coloured, long and more or less glabrous. Flowering occurs from November to February, usually following fire the previous summer, and is followed about three months later by the fruit which is a dark brown, leathery follicle long containing about ten winged seeds.

Hybrids with '' L. myricoides'', '' L. silaifolia'' and '' L. fraseri'' occasionally occur where these species grow near ''L. ilicifolia''.

Taxonomy and naming

''Lomatia ilicifolia'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown from a specimen collected near

Port Phillip Port Phillip (Kulin languages, Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped bay#Types, enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, ...

. The description was published in ''Transactions of the Linnean Society of London''. 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 ...

(''ilicifolia'') is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

words ''ilex, ilicis'' meaning "holm-oak, a genus of the holly family" and ''folium'' meaning "leaf".

Distribution and habitat

Native holly is widespread and locally common in south-eastern Victoria where it grows in heath or woodland, sometimes in montane forests, from the

Otway Ranges The Great Otway National Park is a national park located in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated approximately southwest of Melbourne, in the Otway Ranges, a low coastal mountain range. It conta ...

eastward to Gippsland. In

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

it grows in sclerophyll forest on the coast and nearby ranges south of

Moss Vale Moss Vale is a town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wingecarribee Shire. It is located on the Illawarra Highway, which connects to Wollongong and the Illawarra coast via Macquarie Pass. Moss Vale has several he ...

Ecology

Native holly attracts nectar-feeding butterflies.

Use in horticulture

This lomatia is a hardy, slow-growing plant with interesting foliage, well-displayed flowers and attractive fruit. It is frost-tolerant and grows in full sun or partial shade.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3258831 Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (state) Plants described in 1810 ilicifolia Proteales of Australia