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''Adenanthos terminalis'', commonly known as gland flower, yellow gland flower or adenanthos, is a one metre tall
shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
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 Pro ...
. It is found in south eastern regions of
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, in the states of South Australia and Victoria, and is the most widespread of the two '' Adenanthos'' species occurring outside of Western Australia.


Description

''Adenanthos terminalis'' grows as an upright shrub, usually no more than high, but occasionally up to . It lacks a lignotuber. Branches are held erect, and are covered in hairs that lie close along the stem. The leaves are laciniate, being segmented by threes into between three and seven, but most often five, long thin laciniae, each between long, and around in diameter. They most occur clustered at the ends of the branches, but some persist on the stem. Stem leaves are most hairless, and smaller than the leaves that surround the flower, which often have long hairs near their bases. Unlike most other ''Adenanthos'' species, the inflorescence of ''A. terminalis'' is not always reduced to a single flower: flowers may occur in groups of up to three. They are usually hidden by the surrounding floral leaves, and consist of a perianth up to long, and a style up to 30 mm ( in) long. The perianth is white to cream in colour, sometimes with some green, and covered in short hairs on the outside. The style is also nearly always hairs, and the
ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...
is densely haired.


Taxonomy

The earliest known botanical specimens of ''A. terminalis'' were collected by Scottish botanist Robert Brown at Port Lincoln, South Australia in the first few days of March 1802. He described and named the species in his 1810 " On the Proteaceae of Jussieu". An explicit etymology for the specific name ''terminalis'' was not given, but it is accepted that it is from the Latin ''terminus'' ("end"), and refers to the fact that flowers occur at the ends of branches. In 1856, Carl Meissner published a putative variety, ''A. terminalis'' var. ''plumosa'', and also assigned some Western Australia specimens collected by Ludwig Preiss to ''A. terminalis''. Fourteen years later, George Bentham published a revision of the genus in Volume 5 of his landmark '' Flora Australiensis''. He overlooked Meissner's var. ''plumosa'', and suggested, correctly, that Meissner had erred in assigning Preiss's Western Australian specimens to ''A. terminalis''. He also published the first infrageneric arrangement of the genus, dividing it into two sections, with ''A. terminalis'' placed in ''A.'' sect. ''Stenolaema'' because its perianth tube is straight and not swollen above the middle. This arrangement still stands today, though ''A.'' sect. ''Stenolaema'' is now renamed to the autonym ''A.'' sect. ''Adenanthos''. In 1978 Ernest Charles Nelson refined Bentham's arrangement by dividing ''A.'' sect. ''Adenanthos'' into two subsections, with ''A. terminalis'' placed into ''A.'' subsect. ''Adenanthos'' for reasons including the length of its perianth. At the same time he discarded ''A. terminalis'' var. ''plumosa'' on the grounds that the species is quite variable, particularly when it comes to the hairy covering of the leaves, this being the main characteristic on which Meissner had distinguished the variety. ''A.'' sect. ''Adenanthos'' was not to last long: Nelson discarded his own subsections in his 1995 treatment of ''Adenanthos'' for the '' Flora of Australia'' series of monographs. The placement of ''A. cuneatus'' in Nelson's arrangement of ''Adenanthos'' may be summarised as follows: :'' Adenanthos'' :: ''A.'' sect. ''Eurylaema'' (4 species) :: ''A.'' sect. ''Adenanthos'' :::'' A. drummondii'' :::'' A. dobagii'' :::'' A. apiculatus'' :::'' A. linearis'' :::'' A. pungens'' (2 subspecies) :::'' A. gracilipes'' :::'' A. venosus'' :::'' A. dobsonii'' :::'' A. glabrescens'' (2 subspecies) :::'' A. ellipticus'' :::'' A. cuneatus'' :::'' A. stictus'' :::'' A. ileticos'' :::'' A. forrestii'' :::'' A. eyrei'' :::'' A. cacomorphus'' :::'' A. flavidiflorus'' :::'' A. argyreus'' :::'' A. macropodianus'' :::''A. terminalis'' :::'' A. sericeus'' (2 subspecies) :::'' A. × cunninghamii'' :::'' A. oreophilus'' :::'' A. cygnorum'' (2 subspecies) :::'' A. meisneri'' :::'' A. velutinus'' :::'' A. filifolius'' :::'' A. labillardierei'' :::'' A. acanthophyllus'' Despite the phyletic order of the above, Nelson thought the closest relatives of ''A. terminalis'' were probably '' A. apiculatus'' and '' A. dobagii''. Suspected hybrids of ''A. terminalis'' with '' A. macropodianus'' have been found.


Ecology

In a 1977 study conducted in South Australia, designed to gather evidence for the premise that honeyeaters pollinate the flowers they visit, ''A. terminalis'' flowers were regularly visited by ''
Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris The eastern spinebill (''Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris'') is a species of honeyeater found in south-eastern Australia in forest and woodland areas, as well as gardens in urban areas of Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. It is around 15&nbs ...
'' (eastern spinebill), ''
Anthochaera chrysoptera The little wattlebird (''Anthochaera chrysoptera''), also known as the brush wattlebird, is a passerine bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It is found in coastal and sub-coastal south-eastern Australia. Taxonomy The little wattlebird wa ...
'' (little wattlebird), '' Phylidonyris pyrrhoptera'' (crescent honeyeater), ''
Phylidonyris novaehollandiae The New Holland honeyeater (''Phylidonyris novaehollandiae'') is a honeyeater species found throughout southern Australia. It was among the first birds to be scientifically described in Australia, and was initially named ''Certhia novaehollandia ...
'' (New Holland honeyeater) and ''
Gliciphila melanops The tawny-crowned honeyeater (''Gliciphila melanops'') is a passerine bird native to southern Australia. Taxonomy The tawny-crowned honeyeater was originally described by ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as ''Certhia melanops''. Its specific e ...
'' (tawny-crowned honeyeater). Pollen of ''A. terminalis'' was recovered from the facial feathers of individuals of all of these species except ''Anthochaera chrysoptera'', and also from '' Melithreptus brevirostris'' (brown-headed honeyeater). It is susceptible to '' Phytophthora cinnamomi'' dieback.


Distribution and habitat

The species is found in southern regions of Australia, from the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island in South Australia, to the Big and Little deserts of Victoria. The eastern limit of the species is at Wyperfeld National Park, making this the more easterly species of ''Adenanthos''. It occurs in deep sandy soils, or sometimes 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 b ...
soils, amongst mallee scrub.


References


External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q4682212 terminalis Endemic flora of Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (Australia) Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)