''Macropidia fuliginosa'', the sole species of genus ''Macropidia'', 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 ...

rhizomatous In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

flowering plant. A relation of the kangaroo paws, ''

Anigozanthus ''Anigozanthos'' is a genus of Southwest Australian plants of the bloodwort family Haemodoraceae. The 11 species and their subspecies are commonly known as kangaroo paw or catspaw, depending on their size, and the shape and color of their flow ...

'', which are also

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 ...

Southwest Australia Southwest Australia is a biogeographic region in Western Australia. It includes the Mediterranean-climate area of southwestern Australia, which is home to a diverse and distinctive flora and fauna. The region is also known as the Southwest Aus ...

, it is referred to as the black kangaroo paw. Bearing unusual black and green flowers, it occurs on a coastal plain from

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Geraldton 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. ...

Taxonomy

A species of the

Haemodoraceae Haemodoraceae is a family of perennial herbaceous flowering plants with 14 genera and 102 known species. It is sometimes known as the "bloodwort family". Primarily a Southern Hemisphere family, they are found in South Africa, Australia and New ...

family, once allied to the kangaroo paws ''

'', but recognised as a separate and monotypic sister genus named ''Macropidia''. It was first described by James Drummond in a letter intended for publication in 1843, and named as "''Anigozanthus Molloyiae''". Drummond wrote of this species as a flower of mourning, and provided the epithet in reference to the recently deceased

Georgiana Molloy Georgiana Molloy (23 May 1805 – 8 April 1843) was an early settler in Western Australia, who is remembered as one of the first botanical collectors in the colony. Her husband, John, was involved in the Wonnerup massacre, and she has been the ...

, an early botanical collector of the region. The first published description by W. J. Hooker in the ''

Botanical Magazine ''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. Each of the issue ...

'' provided the name ''Anigozanthos fuliginosa'' in 1847, but its later separation by Drummond and

William Henry Harvey William Henry Harvey, FRS FLS (5 February 1811 – 15 May 1866) was an Irish botanist and phycologist who specialised in algae. Biography Harvey was born at Summerville near Limerick, Ireland, in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. His father ...

to a new genus in 1855 used ''Macropidia fumosa''. The erection of a new genus followed a visit by Hooker to the

Swan River colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it ...

in 1854, the region in which Drummond lived and collected. The priority of the Hooker's earlier epithet was recognised by G. C. Druce, who established its revision as the current name ''Macropidia fuliginosa'' in 1917. The type locality is not certain, and while once thought to have been collected in the Hill River region,

Stephen Hopper Stephen Donald Hopper AC FLS FTSE (born 18 June 1951) is a Western Australian botanist. He graduated in Biology, specialising in conservation biology and vascular plants. Hopper has written eight books, and has over 200 publications to his n ...

gave the location as "near Moore River" in the ''

Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...

''. The collection was made by Johnston Drummond in 1843, probably close to the site where he was killed two years later;

Rica Erickson Frederica Lucy "Rica" Erickson , née Sandilands, (10 August 1908 – 8 September 2009) was an Australian naturalist, botanical artist, historian, author and teacher. Without any formal scientific training, she wrote extensively on botany and b ...

identified a possible site near

New Norcia New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

and determined that he did not habitually visit the Hill river region. The name kangaroo paw is given for the flowering branches resemblance to a

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s forearm. The 'black' species is contained by a monotypic genus, eleven other similar plants of this name are contained by the genus ''

''. The generic name ''Macropidia'' refers to the kangaroo genus ''

Macropus ''Macropus'' is a marsupial genus in the family Macropodidae. It has two extant species of large terrestrial kangaroos. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek μάκρος, ''makros'' "long" and πους, ''pous'' "foot". Thirteen known exti ...

''; ''fuliginosa'' is from the Latin for soot (''fuligo'') referring to the black colouration. The description of the species in the ''Botanical Magazine'' in 1847, then known only from dried specimens, gave the common name sooty anigozanthos. "

Nollamara Nollamara is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Its Local government areas of Western Australia, local government area is the City of Stirling. The name "Nollamara" is a Noongar language, Noongar word for the flowering plant ''Macropidia'', ...

" is the Aboriginal word for the black kangaroo paw, a name given to a suburb of Perth.

Description

A small perennial herb with erect green-yellow leaves, its flowering scape is around one metre in height. The leaves are strap-like, flattened, and between 315 and 460 mm long, 10 to 15 mm wide, and tightly arrayed at ground level. They emerge from a stem beneath the ground, a

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

, that allows the plants to regenerate after fire. Flowers occur in spring and summer on branched stem to a metre or more. Black hairs occur along the flowers and stems. The black and green color of the inflorescence is unusual in Australian plants, where it is only present in a few species of

grevillea ''Grevillea'', commonly known as spider flowers, is a genus of about 360 species of evergreen flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Plants in the genus ''Grevillea'' are shrubs, rarely trees, with the leaves arranged alternately along the b ...

and another south-western species, ''

Kennedia nigricans ''Kennedia nigricans'', commonly known as black kennedia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a trailing or twining shrub or climber with trifoliate leaves and black ...

'' (black kennedia). The

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

curves back in an irregular form, leaving a tube between 12 to 18 mm long; the total length of this is 50 to 60 mm. ''Macropidia fuliginosa'' can be germinated from seed for cultivation, but with difficulty, commercial production instead uses tissue culture as a means of propagation. It is not as widely propagated as the kangaroos paws of ''

'', whose species are hardier and more successfully cultivated. It is classified as 'not threatened', within the Western Australian Flora Conservation Taxa.

Distribution

''Macropidia fuliginosa'' is found in a distribution range extending north from Muchea to Walkaway, favouring low mallee and heath vegetation on white or

lateritic 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 ...

sand of the

bioregion. The population is uncommon and widely dispersed, usually occurring as isolated individuals instead of several plants growing together in a clump.

Ecology

It is

pollinated Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, ...

by nectar feeding birds, those observed are the

Meliphagidae The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Guinea ...

(honeyeater) species, the tawny-crowned '' Gliciphila melanops'', singing '' Gavicalis virescens'', brown '' Lichmera indistincta'', and white-cheeked honeyeater '' Phylidonyris niger''.

Cultivation

When affected by disease it can be burned back to the ground and will regrow from the rhizome. Like many Australian natives it can withstand

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

in the wild. It is subject to fungal diseases such as the ink-spot fungus, and the rust fungus ''Puccinia haemodora''.Kangaroo Paws: Pests and Diseases
Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants (ASGAP), 2006-02-04. Retrieved 2007-09-29. The plant is difficult to propagate from seed, and usually cultivated by

tissue culture Tissue culture is the growth of tissues or cells in an artificial medium separate from the parent organism. This technique is also called micropropagation. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth medium, su ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16880308, from2=Q2038767 Commelinales of Australia Angiosperms of Western Australia Haemodoraceae Commelinales genera Monotypic angiosperm genera