''Argophyllum iridescens'' is a plant in the

Argophyllaceae Argophyllaceae is a family of shrubs or small trees belonging to the order Asterales. The family includes c. 24 species in two genera, '' Argophyllum'' and '' Corokia''. Members of the family are native to eastern Australia, New Zealand, Lord ...

family

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 els ...

to a small part of north eastern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. It was described and named in 2018.

Taxonomy

This species was first described, along with a number of other new species in this

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

, in 2018 by the Australian botanists

Anthony Bean Anthony Russell Bean (born 1957) is an Australian botanist who works at the Queensland Herbarium and Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha. Since 1982, he has led the Eucalyptus Study Group of the Society for Growing Australian Plants. Care ...

and

Paul Forster Paul Irwin Forster (born 1961) is an Australian botanist. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Queensland in 2004 with his thesis ''The pursuit of plants : studies on the systematics, ecology and chemistry of the vascular flora of ...

who published it in the Journal ''

Austrobaileya ''Austrobaileya'' is the sole genus consisting of a single species that constitutes the entire flowering plant family Austrobaileyaceae. The species ''Austrobaileya scandens'' grows naturally only in the Wet Tropics rainforests of northeast ...

''. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was collected by Forster in 1999 at Mount Hedly, near

Rossville, Queensland Rossville is a town and coastal locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Rossville had a population of 204 people. Geography Helenvale is a neighbourhood within the north-west of the locality (). The ...

Etymology

The genus name ''Argophyllum'' is derived from

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

'' Árgos'' meaning white or shining, and '' phúllon'' meaning leaf. It refers to the white colouration of the underside of the leaves. The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) A botanical name ...

''iridescens'' is 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 ...

'' iridēscēns'' (iridescent), referring to very shiny undersurface of the leaves.

Distribution and habitat

''A. iridescens'' is restricted to two small disjunct populations in the

Wet Tropics of Queensland The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all ...

. The more northerly population occurs around Mount Hedly, south of

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repai ...

; the other is in the vicinity of

Noah Creek Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

, between the

Daintree River The Daintree River is a river that rises in the Daintree Rainforest near Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland, Australia. The river is located about northwest of Cairns in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Wet Tropics of Queensland. The are ...

and

Cape Tribulation Cape Tribulation is a headland and coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas in northern Queensland, Australia. In the , Cape Tribulation had a population of 118 people. Geography The locality is north of Cairns. It is within the Daintree N ...

. It inhabits

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

outcrops on the margins of

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfo ...

at elevations between .

Conservation

This species is listed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. Th ...

. , it has not been assessed by the IUCN.

References

External links

View a map
of recorded sightings of ''Argophyllum iridescens'' at the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q65931129 Endemic flora of Australia Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Paul Irwin Forster Taxa named by Anthony Bean Argophyllaceae