''Telopea aspera'', commonly known as Gibraltar Range waratah, 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 ...

. It grows as a woody shrub to 3 metres (10 ft) high with leathery rough leaves and bright red flower heads known as

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—each composed of hundreds of individual flowers. It is endemic to the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

region in

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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was formally described as a species by botanists Peter Weston and Mike Crisp in 1995, separated from its close relative ''

Telopea speciosissima ''Telopea speciosissima'', commonly known as the New South Wales waratah or simply waratah, is a large shrub in the plant family Proteaceae. It is endemic to New South Wales in Australia and is the floral emblem of that state. No subspecies a ...

'' by its rough foliage and preference for dryer habitat. Unlike its better known relative, ''Telopea aspera'' has rarely been cultivated.

Description

''Telopea aspera'' is a large erect shrub up to 3 metres (10 ft) in height with one or more stems. It has dull green leaves which are alternate, and are more coarsely-toothed than its southern relative, with 3–11 serrations on each leaf margin. Measuring 8–28 cm long and 2–6.5 cm wide, the leaves are tough and leathery with furry undersurfaces. There are prominent veins on both the upper and lower leaf surfaces. The

s, which appear in spring, are large and crimson coloured. They consist of a large domed flowerhead ringed by bracts. There are anywhere from 90 to 250 individual flowers making up the flower head. These are followed by follicles long.

Taxonomy

''Telopea aspera'' is one of five species from south eastern Australia which make up the genus ''Telopea''. Its closest relative is the very similar New South Wales waratah (''T. speciosissima'') from the Sydney region in central New South Wales, from which it was only recognised as a separate species in 1991, having previously been considered an unusual northern population. Initially provisionally called ''Telopea'' sp. A, it was formally described as ''Telopea aspera'' in 1995 by

Michael Crisp Michael Douglas Crisp (born 1950) is an emeritus professor in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University located in Canberra. In 1976 he gained a PhD from the University of Adelaide, studying long-term vegetation chan ...

and

Peter Weston Peter Weston (19 October 1943 – 5 January 2017) was a British science fiction fan from Birmingham, UK. Weston made many contributions in fan writing, fanzine editing, convention-running and in local science fiction clubs. His 1960s pseudonym ...

in the journal '' Telopea''. The species name is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

adjective ''asper'' "rough", and relates to the leaves. The genus is classified in the subtribe

Embothriinae The Grevilleoideae are a subfamily of the plant family Proteaceae. Mainly restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, it contains around 46 genera and about 950 species. Genera include ''Banksia'', ''Grevillea'', and ''Macadamia''. Description T ...

of the Proteaceae, along with the tree waratahs (''Alloxylon'') from eastern Australia and New Caledonia, and ''

Oreocallis ''Oreocallis'' is a South American plant genus in the family Proteaceae. There is only one species, ''Oreocallis grandiflora'', which is native to mountainous regions in Peru and Ecuador. Previously, the genus was considered to have several spec ...

'' and the Chilean firetree (''Embothrium coccineum'') from South America. Almost all these species have red terminal flowers, and hence the subtribe's origin and floral appearance must predate the splitting of

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

into Australia, Antarctica, and South America over 60 million years ago.

Distribution and habitat

Gibraltar Range waratah is endemic to northern New South Wales, where it is restricted to the

Gibraltar Range The Gibraltar Range is a mountain range in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The range extends off the Great Dividing Range at Bald Nob about east northeast of and trends generally east northeast and north northea ...

. Found in dry sclerophyll forest, it is a component of three plant communities within Gibraltar Range: the first is composed of Gibraltar ash (''

Eucalyptus olida ''Eucalyptus olida'' is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to a restricted area of New South Wales, Australia. It has rough, flaky and fibrous bark on the trunk and larger branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower ...

''), privet-leaved stringybark (''

Eucalyptus ligustrina ''Eucalyptus ligustrina'', commonly known as the privet-leaved stringybark, is a species of shrub, mallee or small tree that is endemic to New South Wales. It has rough, stringy bark, lance-shaped to egg-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in gro ...

'') and diehard stringybark ('' Eucalyptus cameronii'') and occurs on slopes and crests, while the second is composed of Gibraltar ash, large-fruited blackbutt ('' Eucalyptus pyrocarpa'') and needlebark stringybark ('' Eucalyptus planchoniana'') and occurs on ridges and north and west-facing slopes. Both are shrubby to open woodland communities found on skeletal to shallow soil on

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

. The third community is a more sheltered one of New England blackbutt ('' Eucalyptus campanulata'') and diehard stringybark found on lower slopes on sandy or loam soils.

Ecology

This waratah resprouts from a woody lignotuber after bushfire. It stores energy and nutrients as a resource for rapid growth after a bushfire. The prominent position and striking colour of most members of the subtribe

both in Australia and South America strongly suggest they are adapted to pollination by birds, and have been for over 60 million years.

Use in horticulture

''Telopea aspera'' has been rarely cultivated, though it is possible that some garden specimens thought to be ''T. speciosissima'' may in fact have been this species. Plants have fared poorly at

Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan is a botanical garden located in a hilly area of the southwestern Sydney suburb of , between Campbelltown and Camden, New South Wales. It is the largest botanical garden in Australia, specializing in ...

, perishing in summer, though the reason for this is not known. Cultivation of ''T. aspera'' at Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens has been more successful. The flowers and foliage are attractive horticultural features.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3517420 Flora of New South Wales Proteales of Australia

aspera Aspera may refer to: Music * Aspera (band), an American indie rock band * ''(a)spera'', a 2009 album by Mirah * Above Symmetry, a Norwegian progressive metal band originally known as Aspera * "Aspera", the lead track from ''We Will Become Like Bir ...

Plants described in 1995 Taxa named by Michael Crisp