''Persoonia katerae'' is a 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 ...

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 a small area on the coast of New South Wales. It is an erect shrub to small tree with smooth bark on the branches, narrow elliptic to lance-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and yellow flowers in groups of six to twenty-two 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 ...

long.

Description

''Persoonia katerae'' is an erect shrub to small tree that typically grows to a height of about and has finely fissured bark near the base, smooth bark above. Its young branchlets are covered with greyish hairs. The leaves are narrow elliptical to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide, sometimes with a few hairs mainly on the edges. The flowers are arranged in groups of six to twenty-two along a rachis long that grows into a leafy shoot after flowering. Each flower is on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

about long and 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, long and hairy on the outside. Flowering occurs from January to February and the fruit is a green

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'') ...

, sometimes suffused with purple.

Taxonomy

''Persoonia katerae'' was first formally described in 1991 by P.H.Weston &

L.A.S.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 (194 ...

in the journal '' Telopea'' from specimens collected near Boomerang Beach in 1988.

Distribution and habitat

This geebung grows in heath and forest on coastal sand between the

Hastings River Hastings River ( Birpai: ''Doongang''), an open and trained intermediate wave dominated barrier estuary, is located in the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast districts of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Hastings River rise ...

and

Myall Lakes Myalls are any of a group of closely related and very similar species of ''Acacia'': * ''Acacia binervia ''Acacia binervia'', commonly known as the coast myall, is a wattle native to New South Wales and Victoria. It can grow as a shrub or as a t ...

in coastal New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7170717 katerae Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1991 Taxa named by Peter H. Weston Taxa named by Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson