''Persoonia longifolia'', commonly known as snottygobble, is a species of flowering 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 ...

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 else ...

to the

southwest 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 sepa ...

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 ...

. It is a shrub or small tree characterised by its weeping foliage, yellow flowers and distinctive flaky bark.

Description

''Persoonia longifolia'' is an erect shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of , usually with a single main trunk. It has flaky-papery bark, brown or greyish on the surface and reddish purple below. Young branchlets are covered with brown to rust-coloured hairs. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide. The flowers are borne in groups of up to thirty on stalks up to long near the ends of branches, each flower on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long, the

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s yellow and long. Flowering occurs from October to January and the fruit is a smooth drupe long and wide maturing from July and containing a single seed.

Taxonomy and naming

''Persoonia longifolia'' was first collected described in 1810 by Robert Brown ''

Transactions of the Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature col ...

''. The species name derives 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 ...

terms ''longus'' "long", and ''folium'' "leaf". Within the genus ''

Persoonia ''Persoonia'', commonly known as geebungs or snottygobbles, is a genus of about one hundred species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Plants in the genus ''Persoonia'' are shrubs or small trees usually with smooth bark, simple lea ...

'', it is classified in the ''Lanceolata'' group, a group of 54 closely related species with similar flowers but very different foliage. These species will often interbreed with each other where two members of the group occur.

Distribution and habitat

Snottygobble is found in the southwest of Western Australia within of the coast between Albany and the southeastern edges of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. It occurs in the jarrah, karri, marri and tingle forest.

Ecology

''Persoonia longifolia'' resprouts from both epicormic buds and from the

lignotuber A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a response t ...

after a fire, often several months later. A study of the phenology of this species has concluded that it grows, flowers and sets fruit in summer. Young branches are often damaged by larvae of the tip-boring ''

Ptyssoptera ''Ptyssoptera'' is a genus of moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximat ...

'' moth and by birds including the red-tailed black cockatoo (''

Calyptorhynchus banksii The red-tailed black cockatoo (''Calyptorhynchus banksii'') also known as Banksian- or Banks' black cockatoo, is a large black cockatoo native to Australia. Adult males have a characteristic pair of bright red panels on the tail that gives t ...

'') and Australian ringneck parrot (''

Barnardius zonarius The Australian ringneck (''Barnardius zonarius'') is a parrot native to Australia. Except for extreme tropical and highland areas, the species has adapted to all conditions. Treatments of genus ''Barnardius'' have previously recognised two sp ...

''). Flowering commences in October and is completed by January, with peak flowering in November and December. The only pollinators observed during the study were native bees and the introduced honey-bee ('' Apis mellifera''). Mature fruit falls from late July to September and are often eaten by wallabies, kangaroos and the bobtail skink (''

Tiliqua rugosa ''Tiliqua rugosa'', most commonly known as the shingleback lizard or bobtail lizard, is a short-tailed, slow-moving species of blue-tongued skink (genus ''Tiliqua'') endemic to Australia. It is commonly known as the shingleback or sleepy lizard ...

''). If left untouched by animals, the fleshy part of the fruit either rots or shrivels and dries. Germination occurs in late winter to early spring from fruits produced in the previous season but microclimate appears to be an important factor in germination rate. Even when germination occurs, few survive with most seedlings succumbing to desiccation or grazing.

Conservation status

This persoonia 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 ...

Uses

In addition to being used for minesite restoration, ''P. longifolia'' is used in the cut-flower trade, being valued for its weeping appearance and durability. It also has potential in the nursery trade for its symmetrical habit, weeping foliage and textured, flaky bark, but studies have suggested that at least eighteen months of soil burial is required for seed germination.

References

External links

*
Discovering The Hills Forest
'. Part of an Environmental Education Program on the Western Australian Jarrah Forest for Year 6 and 7 students.

Department of Conservation and Land Management The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) was a department of the Government of Western Australia that was responsible for implementing the state's conservation and environment legislation and regulations. It was created by the ...

(CALM). p 44. * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q7170730 longifolia Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773) Endemic flora of Southwest Australia