Persoonia Mollis

''Persoonia mollis'', commonly known as soft geebung, is a plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is an erect to prostrate shrub with linear to oblong or spatula-shaped leaves, yellow flowers in groups of up to thirty on a rachis up to long and relatively small fruit.

Description

''Persoonia mollis'' is an erect to prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of and has smooth bark and young branchlets that are covered with greyish to rust-coloured hairs. The leaves are linear, oblong to lance-shaped or spatula-shaped, long, wide and much paler on the lower surface. The flowers are arranged in groups of up to thirty along a rachis up to long that grows into a leafy shoot after flowering, each flower on a pedicel about long, usually with a leaf at the base. The tepals are yellow, long and hairy on the outside. Flowering mostly occurs from late December to May and the fruit is a green drupe about long and wide.

Taxonomy

''Persoonia mollis'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in ''Transactions of the Linnean Society of London''.

In 1991, Siegfried Krauss and Lawrie Johnson described nine subspecies of ''P. mollis'' in the journal '' Telopea'', and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''budawangensis'' S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson is an erect shrub, tall with small, oblong leaves mostly long and wide and is endemic to the Budawang Range;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''caleyi'' (R.Br.) S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson is an erect shrub, tall with small, linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves long and less than wide;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''ledifolia'' (A.Cunn. ex Meisn.) S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson is an erect shrub, tall with small, oblong leaves mostly long and wide and is found between Fitzroy Falls and Kangaroo Valley;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''leptophylla'' S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson is a dense, compact shrub high with bright green, linear to thread-like leaves wide that are sparsely hairy on the lower surface;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''livens'' S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson is a dense, compact shrub high with green to greyish, linear to thread-like leaves wide that are densely hairy on the lower surface;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''maxima'' S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson has large, soft, lance-shaped leaves long and wide, the flower buds covered with copper-coloured hairs about long;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' R.Br. subsp. ''mollis'' has large, soft, lance-shaped leaves long and wide, the flower buds densely covered with whitish hairs about long;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''nectens'' S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson has large, pliable but not soft, lance-shaped leaves long and wide, and flower buds sparsely covered with whitish hairs about long;
* ''Persoonia mollis'' subsp. ''revoluta'' S.Krauss & L.A.S.Johnson is a prostrate, spreading shrub, tall and up to wide, with oblong to egg-shaped leaves long and more than wide.

Distribution and habitat

Soft geebung grows from heath to forest, usually on sandstone, from the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury River south to the Clyde River.
* Subspecies ''budawangensis'' grows from woodland to forest and is endemic to the Budawang Range;
* Subspecies ''caleyi'' grows in forest between Jervis Bay and Durras Lake on the South Coast;
* Subspecies ''ledifolia'' occurs between Kangaloon, the Shoalhaven River, Jamberoo and Wingello where it grows from heath to forest on Hawkesbury Sandstone;
* Subspecies ''leptophylla'' is found between the Shoalhaven River, Budawang Range, Nerriga and Nowra and on the Beecroft Peninsula where it grows in heath and forest on Nowra and Conjola sandstones;
* Subspecies ''livens'' is found between Penrose, Goulburn and Braidwood, growing in woodland on metasedimentary rock and conglomerate;
* Subspecies ''maxima'' grows in forest on Hawkesbury sandstone in the Cowan- Hornsby area;
* Subspecies ''mollis'' is found in forest on sandstone in the Blue Mountains;
* Subspecies ''nectens'' occurs between Oakdale, Hill Top and the Illawarra Escarpment where it grows in forest;
* Subspecies ''revoluta'' grows in forest on Hawkesbury sandstone between Nattai Gorge, Bullio, Berrima and Canyonleigh.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7170722

mollis
Flora of New South Wales
Proteales of Australia
Plants described in 1810
Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)