''Stylidium affine'' is a species in the genus '' Stylidium'' (family

Stylidiaceae The family Stylidiaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It consists of five genera with over 240 species, most of which are endemic to Australia and New Zealand. Members of Stylidiaceae are typically grass-like herbs or small shrub ...

) that 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 ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Description

''Stylidium affine'' is a

perennial plant 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 ...

that possesses long erect or recurved

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

leaves. Leaves are long, 2–4 mm wide, and arranged in groups of 2–4, emerging from a basal papery sheath, having the overall appearance of a tuft.

Inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s are paniculate, long, and densely glandular. Peduncles have 1–3 flowers, which are rose pink to mauve coloured with vertically-paired corolla lobes (anterior and posterior lobes both 8–11 mm long). It has 4 throat appendages, the upper two of which are white, wing-like, and around 4 mm long. It has a

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

chromosome number of 2''n''=14. ''Stylidium affine'' flowers in October.Lowrie, A., D. J. Coates, and K. F. Kenneally. 1998. A taxonomic review of the ''Stylidium caricifolium'' complex (Stylidiaceae), from south-west Western Australia. ''Nuytsia'', 12(1): 43-57.

Distribution and habitat

''Stylidium affine'' grows in

lateritic Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

soils often near granite outcrops in association with ''

Eucalyptus wandoo ''Eucalyptus wandoo'', commonly known as wandoo, dooto, warrnt or wornt, is a small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of nine to sev ...

'' in open woodland. It is native to an area from east of Gingin south-east to Kojonup and west to Dunsborough. In the southern part of its range, ''S. affine'' is found in open woodland in association with ''E. wandoo'' or ''

Corymbia calophylla ''Corymbia calophylla'', commonly known as marri, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a tree or mallee with rough bark on part or all of the trunk, lance-shaped ad ...

''. Its distribution is separate and west of related species like '' S. caricifolium''.

Taxonomy and botanical history

The species now known as ''S. affine'' was first described by Robert Graham as ''Stylidium drummondii'' in an 1841 volume of the ''Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal''. Graham based his new species description on plants raised from seed that were sent from James Drummond to a Mr Low of Clapton,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Mr Low sent a plant to Graham in October 1839. The specimen first flowered in November 1840. The exact provenance of the seed sent to Mr Low is not explicitly stated by Graham in his description, but it is speculated that the seed came from Drummond's travels in the

Swan Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...

, Avon, Helena, and Toodyay valleys, which are within the bounds of the known distribution of ''S. affine''.Wege, J. A. 2007. (1782) Proposal to conserve the name ''Stylidium affine'' against ''S. drummondii'' (Stylidiaceae). ''Taxon'', 56(2): 613-614. In 1845,

Otto Wilhelm Sonder Otto Wilhelm Sonder (18 June 1812, Bad Oldesloe – 21 November 1881) was a German botanist and pharmacist. Life A native of Holstein, Sonder studied at Kiel University, where he sat pharmaceutical examinations in 1835, before becoming the prop ...

published the name ''Stylidium affine''. Since then, it has been used in multiple publications including

Johannes Mildbraed Gottfried Wilhelm Johannes Mildbraed (19 December 1879 – 24 December 1954) was a German botanist that specialized in mosses, ferns, and various spermatophytes. He is well known for authoring the most current monograph and taxonomic treatment of ...

's 1908 taxonomic monograph on the family, whereas ''S. drummondii'' has only been used sparingly. While preparing a revision of the family for the ''

Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...

'' series,

Juliet Wege Juliet Ann Wege (born 1971 in Western Australia) is an Australian botanist. She graduated in 1992 and gained a PhD at The University of Western Australia in 1999 with a thesis titled "Morphological and anatomical variation within Stylidium (Stylid ...

discovered that the description and illustration of ''S. drummondii'' is

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

with and antedates that of ''S. affine'', thus making ''S. drummondii'' the proper name for the species under strict priority nomenclature rules regulated by the

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "trad ...

(ICBN). Citing the extensive use of ''S. affine'' over ''S. drummondii'' and the preference for preserving nomenclatural stability (Article 14.2 of the ICBN), Wege proposed and argued for the

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

of the name ''S. affine'' over ''S. drummondii'' in 2007. The conservation of the name ''S. affine'' was recommended by a 17 to 1 vote by the Nomenclature Committee for Vascular Plants in February 2009,Brummitt, RK. 2009. Report of the Nomenclature Committee for Vascular Plants: 60. ''Taxon'', 58(1): 280-292. but the proposal has not yet been assessed by the

International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress (IBC) is an international meeting of botanists in all scientific fields, authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) and held every six years, with the location rotat ...

.Proposals and Disposals Database
Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 2 December 2009. Two

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

of ''S. affine'' have been described in the past, the first of which were ''S. affine'' var. ''minus'' and the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

''S. affine'' var. ''affine'' described in Sonder's original 1845 publication. In 1904,

Ernst Georg Pritzel Ernst Georg Pritzel (15 May 1875 – 6 April 1946) was a German botanist. He is known for his research in the fields of phytogeography and taxonomy. He contributed works on Lycopodiaceae, Psilotaceae and Pittosporaceae to Engler & Prantl’s "Die ...

published ''S. affine'' var. ''laxum''. Both var. ''minus'' and var. ''laxum'' are now considered to be synonymous with ''S. caricifolium'', rendering the autonym var. ''affine'' unnecessary. For a brief period of time, ''S. affine'' was considered to be a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the allied ''S. caricifolium''.

Sherwin Carlquist Sherwin John Carlquist FMLS (July 7, 1930 - December 1, 2021) was an American botanist and photographer. Education He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1952 and a Ph.D. in botany in 1956, also at ...

found very little difference between ''S. affine'', '' S. nungarinense'', and ''S. caricifolium'', arguing in 1969 that the former two could not be maintained at the species rank.Carlquist, S. 1969. Studies in Stylidiaceae: New taxa, field observations, evolutionary tendencies. ''Aliso'', 7(1): 13-64. Subsequent publications in the early 1980s determined that ''S. affine'' was worthy of species rank due to differential leaf morphology and differences in chromosome count.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7629499 Asterales of Australia Carnivorous plants of Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1845

affine Affine may describe any of various topics concerned with connections or affinities. It may refer to: * Affine, a relative by marriage in law and anthropology * Affine cipher, a special case of the more general substitution cipher * Affine comb ...

Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder