Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
This delightful little shrub comes to life in winter, producing an abundance of crimson flowers at a time when few other plants are in flower. Look for Styphelia tubiflora on poor sandy soils, usually in heaths and dry sclerophyll Eucalyptus woodlands on sandstone ridges and hillsides. Although sometimes quite abundant, its distribution is limited, from Sydney south to Jervis Bay and westward to the Blue Mountains. In the past Styphelia tubiflora would have been classified as a member of the Epacridaceae plant family, known fondly, and proudly, as Australian Heaths. Now molecular biologists tell us that it is more appropriately included in the Ericaceae, a predominantly northern hemisphere family, well known for the heaths of Europe and North America and the Rhododendrons of Asia. Most Australian heaths (Epacris, Woollsia, Leucopogon, Trochocarpa, for example) are now considered to belong to the Subfamily Styphelioideae of the Ericaceae. It is the genus name Styphelia which gives its name to the new subfamily. So Styphelia could be regarded as the type genus. The Styphelioideae (over 400 species in 35 genera) are abundant in southern Australia with greatest diversity in the south-west of Western Australia and south-eastern Australia; others occur in New Zealand, the islands of the south-west Pacific and south-east Asia. Even Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost limit of South America, hosts one genus, Lepetanthus. World-wide distribution of Ericaceae, Subfamily Styphelioideae In Australia, our Australian Heaths generally grow on acid, nutrient poor soils, often in heaths and swamps, from the coast to alpine areas. Most have associations with mycorrhizal fungi which facilitate extraction and uptake of nutrients from infertile soils. Leaves are often small, hard, leathery, and often sharp tipped. We often, incorrectly, refer to the pattern of venation in their leaves as parallel, a characteristic of monocots, typically grasses, rather than dicots. However, the venation is more appropriately referred to as palmate: several veins diverge from the centre of the base of the leaf then appear to run parallel with each other along the leaf. This is often a useful identification characteristic for the family when flowers are not present. Plantnet: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Styphelia~tubiflora Maps modified from: Australian Native Plant Society (Australia): http://anpsa.org.au/epacris1.html Alison Downing, Brian Atwell, Kevin Downing Department of Biological Sciences, July 2015 Note the palmate (parallel) leaves in this illustration of "Styphelia-tubiflora" by James Sowerby (1757-1822, artist and naturalist) Australian National Botanic Gardens [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stypheliatubiflora.jpg#/media/File:Styphelia-tubiflora.jpg