''Zieria vagans'', commonly known as Gurgeena stink bush, is a plant in the citrus

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Derm ...

and

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 a small area near

Binjour Binjour is a rural locality in the North Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Binjour had a population of 98 people. Geography Binjour is in the Wide Bay-Burnett region on the Burnett Highway by road north of the state capital, Br ...

in south-eastern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. It is an open, straggly shrub with densely hairy branches, three-part leaves and groups of up to fifteen flowers with four creamy-white

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 and four

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

Description

''Zieria vagans'' is an open, straggly shrub which grows to a height of and has thin branches covered with soft hairs when young. The leaves are composed of three narrow elliptic leaflets, the central leaflet long and wide. The leaves have a petiole long. The lower surface of the leaflets is more or less

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

and the upper surface is rough and has a dense covering of hairs. The flowers are arranged in groups of three to fifteen in leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s, the groups shorter than the leaves. The groups are on a hairy stalk long. The flowers are surrounded by scale-like

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s long which remain during flowering. 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 are triangular, about long and wide and the four petals are creamy white, elliptic in shape, about long, wide and hairy on both surfaces. There are four stamens. Flowering occurs between August and February and is followed by fruits which are more or less glabrous capsules about long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

''Zieria vagans'' was first formally described in 2007 by

Marco Duretto Marco Duretto (born 1964) is a manager and senior research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney in Australia. His primary research interests are systematics and conservation of Rutaceae, Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, Stylidiaceae and evolut ...

and

Paul Irwin Forster Paul Irwin Forster (born 1961) is an Australian botanist. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Queensland in 2004 with his thesis ''The pursuit of plants : studies on the systematics, ecology and chemistry of the vascular flora of A ...

from a specimen collected in a state forest near Binjour and the description was published in ''

Austrobaileya ''Austrobaileya'' is the sole genus consisting of a single species that constitutes the entire flowering plant family Austrobaileyaceae. The species ''Austrobaileya scandens'' grows naturally only in the Wet Tropics rainforests of northeast ...

''. 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 ...

(''vagans'') is a

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 ...

word meaning "wandering" or "unsettled", referring to some populations of this species growing between woodland and vine thicket.

Distribution and habitat

Gurgeena stink bush is only known from the Gurgeena Plateau near Binjour in the

Brigalow Belt The Brigalow Belt is a wide band of acacia-wooded grassland that runs between tropical rainforest of the coast and the semi-arid interior of Queensland, Australia. The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) divides the Bri ...

bioregions A bioregion is an ecology, ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to ...

where it grows in or near vine thicket dominated by ''

Backhousia kingii ''Backhousia'' is a genus of thirteen currently known species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. All the currently known species are endemic to Australia in the rainforests and seasonally dry forests of Queensland, New South Wales and ...

''.

Conservation status

''Zieria vagans'' is classified as "critically endangered" under the Queensland Government ''

Nature Conservation Act 1992 The ''Nature Conservation Act 1992'' is an act of the Parliament of Queensland, Australia, that, together with subordinate legislation, provides for the legislative protection of Queensland's threatened biota. As originally published, it prov ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18084133 vagans Sapindales of Australia Flora of Queensland Plants described in 2007 Taxa named by Marco Duretto Taxa named by Paul Irwin Forster Endemic flora of Australia