''Ptilotus nobilis'', commonly known as yellow tails, is an

annual Annual may refer to: * Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook ** Literary annual * Annual plant * Annual report * Annual giving * Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco * Annuals (b ...

or short-lived

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 ...

herb of the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

. It is found in arid regions of South Australia, southern and eastern Northern Territory, western Queensland and western New South Wales. The

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 ...

was first formally described by English botanist

John Lindley John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. Early years Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...

in Thomas Mitchell's ''Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia'' in 1838. Lindley gave it the name ''Trichinium nobile'' Lindl. The species was transferred to the genus''

Ptilotus ''Ptilotus'' R.Br. is a genus of approximately 120 species of annual and perennial herbs and shrubs in the family Amaranthaceae. All species are native to mainland Australia, although one species, '' Ptilotus spathulatus'' (R.Br.) Poir., also occ ...

'' in 1868 by Victorian Government Botanist

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in the sixth volume of his '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae''. A 2007 molecular study of the ITS (

internal transcribed spacer Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) is the spacer DNA situated between the small-subunit ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and large-subunit rRNA genes in the chromosome or the corresponding transcribed region in the polycistronic rRNA precursor transcript. I ...

)

nrDNA Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) is a DNA sequence that codes for ribosomal RNA. These sequences regulate transcription initiation and amplification, and contain both transcribed and non-transcribed spacer segments. In the human genome there are 5 chromos ...

a few populations of ''P. nobilis'' var. ''nobilis'' and '' Ptilotus exaltatus'' var. ''exaltatus'' in Queensland found a very close relationship between the two using a

neighbor-joining In bioinformatics, neighbor joining is a bottom-up (agglomerative) clustering method for the creation of phylogenetic trees, created by Naruya Saitou and Masatoshi Nei in 1987. Usually based on DNA or protein sequence data, the algorithm require ...

analysis. '' Ptilotus exaltatus'' var. ''exaltatus'' was subsequently synonymized together with ''P. nobilis'' var. ''nobilis'' under ''P. nobilis'' subsp. ''nobilis'' in a taxonomic paper by Tony Bean in 2008, citing this 2007 molecular study as "strong genetic evidence" (p. 241). A study by Hammer ''et al.'' in 2018 critically reevaluated all previous morphological concepts of ''P. exaltatus'' and ''P. nobilis'' (and all infrataxa previously included within each), and specifically the findings of the aforementioned studies in 2007 and 2008, and found that ''P. exaltatus'' var. ''exaltatus'' and ''P. nobilis'' var. ''nobilis'' were strongly partitioned in both morphology and ecology. This paper formally reinstated ''P. exaltatus'' as separate from ''P. nobilis'' subsp. ''nobilis'' and raised ''P. nobilis'' subsp. ''angustifolius'' and ''P. nobilis'' subsp. ''semilanatus'' to species as ''P. angustifolius'' (Benl) T.Hammer and ''P. semilanatus'' (Lindl.) F.Muell. ex J.M.Black, respectively. Scattered across inland

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, it grows on a range of soils, though prefers more sandy than clayey soils. Habitats include ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

'' woodland, mallee, shrubland and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

Cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s (now of unclear taxonomic placement) developed and registered by Dion Harrison and colleagues at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

include 'Passion' (an upright form with purple flowerheads), 'Poise' (a two-toned tan and pink flowerhead), and 'Purity' (upright stems and green-yellow flowerheads).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7257074

nobilis ''Nobilis'' is a contemporary fantasy tabletop role-playing game created by Jenna K. Moran, writing under the name R. Sean Borgstrom. The player characters are "Sovereign Powers" called ''the Nobilis''; each Noble is the personification of an ...

Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Victoria (state) Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1838 Taxa named by John Lindley