Leucospermum truncatum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Leucospermum truncatum | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Proteales |
| Family: | Proteaceae |
| Genus: | Leucospermum |
| Species: | L. truncatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Leucospermum truncatum | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
| |
Leucospermum truncatum, commonly known as the limestone pincushion, is a shrub native to South Africa. The flowers are initially bright yellow but turn orange with time. Flowers can be found between August and December.
Leucospermum truncatum is a rounded, upright, well-branched shrub of up to 2 m (6.6 ft) high, with a single main stem at its foot, covered in minute soft crinkly hairs. Its simple long spade-shaped leaves are set alternately, have a squared-off end, mostly with three (sometimes non, five or seven) blunt teeth with a rounded bony tip, 4.5–9 cm (1.8–3.5 in) long, and 8–15 mm (0.31–0.59 in) wide. The flowering stems are stiffly upright and 1⁄2 cm (0.20 in) in diameter.[2]
The flower heads are globe-shaped, usually with two or three together and sit on a stalk of up to 2 cm (0.79 in) long. Each flowerhead of 3–4 cm (1.2–1.6 in) in diameter. The style is yellow in colour, 18–35 mm (0.71–1.38 in) long, straight or slightly bend towards the center of the flower head. The pollen-presenter, a thickening at the tip of the style (comparable with the "head" of the pin), is cylindric in shape with a blunt end, 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long, initially carrying bright yellow pollen. The stigma is a transverse groove at the very tip of the pollen-presenter. At the base of the ovary are four linear, so-called hypogynous scales of about 1 mm (0.039 in) long.[2]
The subtribe Proteinae, to which the genus Leucospermum has been assigned, consistently has a basic chromosome number of twelve (2n=24).[3]
Taxonomy
The name Leucospermum truncatum was first used in 1843 by Heinrich Wilhelm Buek for a specimen that was collected by Johann Franz Drège in August 1831, just east of Cape Agulhas on a limestone hill. He however failed to add a description, and therefore L. truncatum H.Buek is a nomen nudum. In 1856, Carl Meissner used Buek's epithet for Leucospermum zeyheri var. truncatum, adding the necessary description in Latin. Otto Kuntze moved truncatum in 1891 to Leucadendron. John Patrick Rourke in 1967, raised Meissner's variety to a separate species and made the new combination Leucospermum truncatum.[2]