Ernest Charles Nelson (Ernest) Charles Nelson (15 September 1951, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a botanist who specialises in the heather family, Ericaceae, especially ''Erica'', and whose past research interests included the Proteaceae especially '' Adenanthos''. H ...

's taxonomic arrangement of ''

Adenanthos ''Adenanthos'' is a genus of Australian native shrubs in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. Variable in habit and leaf shape, it is the only genus in the family where solitary flowers are the norm. It was discovered in 1791, and formally publ ...

'' was the first modern-day arrangement of that

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

. First published in his 1978 ''

Brunonia ''Brunonia australis'', commonly known as the blue pincushion or native cornflower, is a perennial or annual herb that grows widely across Australia. It is found in woodlands, open forest and sand plains. In Cronquist's classification scheme ...

'' article "A taxonomic revision of the genus ''Adenanthos'' (Proteaceae)", it superseded the arrangement of

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

, which had stood for over a hundred years. It was updated by Nelson in his 1995 treatment for 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, ...

'' series of monographs.

Background

''Adenanthos'' is a genus of around 30

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the plant

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 ...

. Endemic to southern

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 ...

, they are

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

woody

shrubs A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

with solitary

flowers A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

that are

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, ...

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

and, if fertilised, develop into

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

s. They are not much cultivated. Common names of species often include one of the terms ''woollybush'', ''jugflower'' and ''stick-in-the-jug''. The first known botanical collection of ''Adenanthos'' was made by

Archibald Menzies Archibald Menzies ( ; 15 March 1754 – 15 February 1842) was a Scottish surgeon, botanist and naturalist. He spent many years at sea, serving with the Royal Navy, private merchants, and the Vancouver Expedition. He was the first recorded Euro ...

during the September 1791 visit of the

Vancouver Expedition The Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795) was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy. The British expedition circumnavigated the globe and made contact with five continen ...

King George Sound King George Sound ( nys , Menang Koort) is a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came into use ...

on the south coast of

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 ...

. However this did not lead to publication of the genus.

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

collected specimens of '' A. cuneatus'' from Esperance Bay the following year, and in 1803

Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de La Tour (13 November 1773 – 14 March 1826) was a French botanist and ornithologist. Born at the family seat (since 1718), Le Villard, near Chalon-sur-Saône, Leschenault de la Tour arrived in ...

collected the same two species as Menzies had 12 years earlier. Labillardière published the genus in 1805, in his ''

Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen ''Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen'' is a two-volume work describing the flora of Australia. Facsimiles of the originals can be found in the onlinBiodiversity Heritage Library (Vol.1)anVol 2) The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillar ...

'', based on the specimens collected by himself and Leschenault. The genus was given the name ''Adenanthos'' from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

αδην (''aden-'', "gland") and ανθοσz (''-anthos'', "flower"), in reference to the prominent

nectaries Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualist ...

. By 1870, 13 species had been published. That year, Bentham published a fourteenth species and the first infrageneric arrangement, dividing the genus into two taxonomic sections, ''A.'' sect. ''Eurylaema'' and ''A.'' sect. ''Stenolaema'', based on the shape of 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 ...

tube: members of ''A.'' sect. ''Eurylaema'' have perianth tubes that are curved and swollen above the middle, whereas members of ''A.'' sect. ''Stenolaena'' have perianth tubes that are straight and unswollen. This arrangement stood for over a hundred years, by which time a number of new species had been discovered, rendering Bentham's treatment "very inadequate and incomplete".

Nelson's arrangement

Nelson's arrangement of ''Adenanthos'' was first published in his article "A taxonomic revision of the genus ''Adenanthos'' (Proteaceae)", published in ''

'' in 1978. Eight new species and 4 new subspecies were published, bringing the number of species up to 32. In naming them, Nelson follows Labillardière in treating ''Adenanthos'' as having

feminine gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...

, despite an

ICBN The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "trad ...

recommendation (not rule) that names ending in ''-anthos'' be treated as masculine. Bentham's two sections are retained, but several additional diagnostic characteristics are given for them; and, in accordance with modern rules of

botanical nomenclature Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from Alpha taxonomy, taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; botanical nomenclature then provides names for the ...

, ''A.'' sect. ''Stenolaema'' is renamed to the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

''A.'' sect. ''Adenanthos''. This Nelson further divides into two subsections, ''A.'' subsect. ''Anaclastos'' and ''A.'' subsect. ''Adenanthos''. Detailed descriptions of each are given, but Nelson recommends perianth length as the most convenient key for distinguishing between them. Nelson's subsections were discarded by him in his 1995 treatment of ''Adenanthos'' for the ''

'' series of monographs. He retained the two sections, and listed 40 species. Masculine names were used in accordance with a 1994 ICBN ruling. The full arrangement is as follows: Adenanthos obovatus

:''

'' :: ''A.'' sect. ''Eurylaema'' :::'' A. detmoldii'' :::'' A. barbiger'' :::'' A. obovatus'' :::'' A. × pamela'' :: ''A.'' sect. ''Adenanthos'' :::'' A. drummondii'' :::'' A. dobagii'' :::'' A. apiculatus'' :::'' A. linearis'' :::'' A. pungens'' :::: ''A. pungens'' subsp. ''pungens'' :::: ''A. pungens'' subsp. ''effusus'' :::'' A. gracilipes'' :::'' A. venosus'' :::'' A. dobsonii'' :::'' A. glabrescens'' :::: ''A. glabrescens'' subsp. ''glabrescens'' :::: ''A. glabrescens'' subsp. ''exasperatus'' :::'' A. ellipticus'' :::'' A. cuneatus'' :::'' A. stictus'' :::'' A. ileticos'' :::'' A. forrestii'' :::'' A. eyrei'' :::'' A. cacomorphus'' :::'' A. flavidiflorus'' :::'' A. argyreus'' :::'' A. macropodianus'' :::'' A. terminalis'' :::'' A. sericeus'' :::: ''A. sericeus'' subsp. ''sericeus'' :::: ''A. sericeus'' subsp. ''sphalma'' :::'' A. × cunninghamii'' :::'' A. oreophilus'' :::'' A. cygnorum'' :::: ''A. cygnorum'' subsp. ''cygnorum'' :::: ''A. cygnorum'' subsp. ''chamaephyton'' :::'' A. meisneri'' :::'' A. velutinus'' :::'' A. filifolius'' :::'' A. labillardierei'' :::'' A. acanthophyllus''

References

External links

* {{Flora of Australia Online , name = Adenanthos , id = 45040 *:— an online version of Nelson's 1995 arrangement. 1978 introductions Adenanthos Plant taxonomies