''Spyridium obovatum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

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 Tasmania. It is an upright shrub that typically grows to a height of and has egg-shaped leaves, the narrower end towards the base, and about long. Small, compact heads of flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets, the

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s either cream-coloured or yellow, depending on the variety. This species was first formally described in 1836 by

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

who gave it the name ''Pomaderris obovata'' in his ''Companion to the Botanical Magazine''. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimens were collected by

Ronald Campbell Gunn Ronald Campbell Gunn, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, (4 April 1808 – 13 March 1881) was a South African-born Australian Botany, botanist and politician. Early life Gunn was born at Cape Town, Cape Colony, (now South Africa), the son of W ...

, the species having been discovered by James Backhouse at the mouth of the "Meredith River, Swan Port", now

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

. In 1863, George Bentham changed the name to ''Spyridium obovatum'' in '' Flora Australiensis''. In 1858,

Siegfried Reissek Siegfried Reissek (11 April 1819 in Teschen – 9 November 1871 in Vienna) was an Austrian naturalist and botanist who specialized in spermatophytes. He is known for his studies involving plant anatomy and histology. From 1837 to 1841 he was ...

described ''Trimalium velutinum'' in the journal ''Linnaea: Ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde'' from an unpublished description by

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 1863, Bentham reduced the name to ''Spyridium obovatum'' var. ''velutinum'' (F.Muell. ex Reissek) Benth. in ''Flora Australiensis'', and the name, and that of the autonym (''Spyridium obovatum'' (Hook.) Benth. var. ''obovatum'') 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 ...

. The flowers of var. ''obovatum'' have cream-coloured sepals, and those of var. ''velutinum'' have yellow sepals. ''Spyridium obcordatum'' is moderately widespread in Tasmania.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q17244109, from2=Q100497232, from3=Q66122520 obovatum Rosales of Australia Flora of Tasmania Taxa named by William Jackson Hooker Plants described in 1836