''Verticordia nobilis'', commonly known as northern grandiflora, is a flowering plant in the myrtle family,

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

and is endemic to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. It is an openly branched shrub with linear leaves and groups of scented, yellow flowers which turn deep red as they age.

Description

''Verticordia nobilis'' is a shrub which grows to a height of up to and wide with a single main branch and a few side branches. Its leaves are linear in shape, long, semicircular in cross section with those near the flowers broader and more dished on the upper surface. The flowers are arranged in corymb-like groups near the ends of the branches, each flower on a stalk long. The

floral cup In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...

is about long with a slightly warty, glabrous surface. The sepals are yellow, turning red with age, long, spreading with 10 to 12 hairy lobes. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are a similar colour, spreading, long and have long, spreading, thin, finger-like projections. The style is long, straight and glabrous. Flowering time is from August to November.

Taxonomy and naming

''Verticordia nobilis'' was first formally described by Carl Meisner in 1856 from a specimen collected by James Drummond "near the Smith River", now the

Nambung River The Nambung River is a river in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The river drains an area between the towns of Cervantes and Badgingarra. In its lower reaches the Nambung River forms a chain of waterholes in the Na ...

. The description was published in ''Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany''. Meisner noted "a beautiful species, closely approaching ''Verticordia grandiflora''". The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''nobilis'') is a Latin word meaning "celebrated" or "noble". When

Alex George Alexander or Alex George may refer to: *Alex George (botanist) (born 1939), Australian botanist * Alexander L. George (1920–2006), American political scientist * Alexander George (philosopher), American philosopher *Alex George (motorcyclist), Sc ...

reviewed the genus ''Verticordia'' in 1991, he placed this species in subgenus ''Chrysoma'', section ''Unguiculata'' along with '' V. grandiflora'' and '' V. rutilastra''.

Distribution and habitat

This verticordia usually grows in sand but also 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 ...

gravel and loam, often with other species of ''Verticordia'' in

kwongan Kwongan is plant community found in south-western Western Australia. The name is a Bibbelmun (Noongar) Aboriginal term of wide geographical use defined by Beard (1976) as Kwongan has replaced other terms applied by European botanists such as ...

and shrubland. It occurs in and between the Kalbarri National Park, Gingin and Coorow in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

Conservation

''Verticordia nobilis'' is classified as "Not Threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

Use in horticulture

Northern grandiflora is readily propagated from both cuttings and seed. Although young plants are slow to establish in the garden, when grown in a sunny position in areas of low humidity, appear more hardy and tolerant of frost than '' V. grandiflora''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15389057 nobilis Rosids of Western Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1856