''Persoonia hirsuta'', commonly known as the hairy geebung or hairy persoonia, is a species of flowering plant in the family

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 ...

. 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 eastern New South Wales, Australia. It is a hairy, spreading to low-lying shrub with linear, lance-shaped or spatula-shaped leaves and yellow or orange flowers arranged singly or in groups of up to ten on a

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the grc, ῥάχις [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this c ...

up to long.

Description

''Persoonia hirsuta'' is a spreading to low-lying shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy branchlets leaves, flowers and fruit. The leaves are spatula-shaped to elliptic or linear to narrow oblong leaves, long and wide with the edges curved downwards or rolled under. The flowers are borne singly or in groups of up to ten on a rachis up to long that continues to grow into a leafy shoot after flowering. The

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s are yellow or orange, about long. Flowering mostly occurs from November to January and the fruit is a fleshy green to cream-coloured

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

with red streaks.

Taxonomy and naming

Collected by John White in the vicinity of

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

(Sydney) in 1794, ''Persoonia hirsuta'' was first formally described by

Christiaan Hendrik Persoon Christiaan Hendrik Persoon (1 February 1761 – 16 November 1836) was a German mycologist who made additions to Linnaeus' mushroom taxonomy. Early life Persoon was born in South Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, the third child of an immig ...

in his 1805 work ''Synopsis Plantarum''. In 1991,

Peter Weston Peter Weston (19 October 1943 – 5 January 2017) was a British science fiction fan from Birmingham, UK. Weston made many contributions in fan writing, fanzine editing, convention-running and in local science fiction clubs. His 1960s pseudonym ...

and

Lawrie Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson FAA, (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian taxonomic botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for the whole of his professional career, as a botanist (1948� ...

described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

: * ''Persoonia hirsuta'' subsp. ''evoluta'' L.A.S.Johnson & P.H.Weston has spatula-shaped to elliptic leaves wide with the edges turned down; * ''Persoonia hirsuta'' Pers. subsp. ''hirsuta'' has linear to narrow oblong leaves wide with the edges rolled under.

Distribution and habitat

Hairy geebung usually grows in open woodland and heath on sandstone soils. Subspecies ''evoluta'' is sporadically distributed on the Central Coast and

Central Tablelands The Central Tablelands in New South Wales is a geographic area that lies between the Sydney Metropolitan Area and the Central Western Slopes and Plains. The Great Dividing Range passes in a north–south direction through the Central Tablelands ...

in the

Putty Putty is a material with high plasticity, similar in texture to clay or dough, typically used in domestic construction and repair as a sealant or filler. Although some types of putty (typically those using linseed oil) slowly polymerise and be ...

, Glen Davis and

Hill Top A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...

districts, mainly at altitudes between . Subspecies ''hirsuta'' is found from

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extre ...

to the

Royal National Park The Royal National Park is a protected national park that is located in Sutherland Shire in the Australian state of New South Wales, just south of Sydney. The national park is about south of the Sydney central business district near the local ...

, mainly within of the coast and at altitudes lower than .

Ecology

The two subspecies intergrade with each other from the lower Blue Mountains to within of the coast. Subspecies ''evoluta'' also hybridises with '' P. mollis'' subsp. ''nectens''. The fruit are adapted to be eaten by vertebrates, such as

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 ...

possums Possum may refer to: Animals * Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi ** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...

, and

currawong Currawongs are three species of medium-sized passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Strepera'' in the family Artamidae native to Australia. These are the grey currawong (''Strepera versicolor''), pied currawong (''S. graculina''), and black cu ...

s and other large birds.

Conservation status

''Persoonia hirsuta'' is listed nationally as ''endangered'' under the ''

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

'' and in New South Wales under the '' Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016''. The species occurs in fragmented small populations throughout its range and is threatened by urban development, clearing or degradation of bushland and too frequent bushfires and burning of bush. The European honeybee has been implicated in the decline of this and other species as it is suspected of being a poor pollinator of persoonia flowers.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7170716 hirsuta Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1805 Taxa named by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon