''Alloxylon'' is a genus of four species in the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...

of mainly small to medium-sized

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s. They are native to the eastern coast of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, with one species, '' A. brachycarpum'' found in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and the Aru Islands. The genus is a relatively new creation, being split off from ''

Oreocallis ''Oreocallis'' is a South American plant genus in the family Proteaceae. There is only one species, ''Oreocallis grandiflora'', which is native to mountainous regions in Peru and Ecuador. Previously, the genus was considered to have several spec ...

'' in 1991. The name is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''allo-'' "other" or "strange" and ''xylon'' or "wood" due to their unusual cell architecture compared with the related genera ''Telopea'' and ''Oreocallis''. In Australia, they are known as tree waratahs due to similarities in the inflorescences between them and the closely related '' Telopea''.

Classification

Together with '' Telopea'', ''

'' and ''

Embothrium ''Embothrium'' is a genus of two to eight species (depending on taxonomic interpretation) in the plant family Proteaceae, native to southern South America, in Chile and adjacent western Argentina; the genus occurs as far south as Tierra del Fue ...

'', ''Alloxylon'' makes up a small group of terminal often red-flowering showy plants scattered around the southern edges of the Pacific Rim. Known as the

subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants). The first use of this word dates back to the late 19th century. An example of ...

Embothriinae, this is an ancient group with roots in the mid

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

, when

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

were linked by land.

Cultivation

They are grown for their showy flowers. Their large size and, in some cases, lengthy time to flower from seed, has limited their availability as garden plants. However, '' Alloxylon flammeum'' has proven adaptable and hardy, while the others are more exacting in their requirements. All do best in a well-drained soil rich in organic material but low in

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

with some shelter when small.

Species

* '' Alloxylon brachycarpum'' * '' Alloxylon flammeum'' (

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

) (previously ''Oreocallis wickhamii'') * '' Alloxylon pinnatum'' * '' Alloxylon wickhamii''

References

External links

Photo of A. pinnatum in flower
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2698344 Proteaceae genera Ornamental trees Taxa named by Michael Crisp Flora of the Australasian realm Proteales of Australia