''Bellendena montana'', commonly known as mountain rocket, is a species of low-growing multi-stemmed shrub in the plant family Proteaceae. It is endemic to high-altitude subalpine and alpine regions in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Australia. The prominent white flower spikes appear over summer, followed by small bright red or yellow fruit in late summer and autumn. Described by Robert Brown in 1810, it is the sole member of the genus ''Bellendena'', which is in turn the sole member of subfamily Bellendenoideae, and is thought to represent an early offshoot within the family.

Taxonomy

Scottish botanist Robert Brown described the mountain rocket in 1810 as ''Bellendena montana'', naming the genus in honour of

John Bellenden Ker Gawler John Bellenden Ker, originally John Gawler, was an English botanist born about 1764 in Ramridge, Andover, Hampshire and died in June 1842 in the same town. On 5 November 1804 he changed his name to Ker Bellenden, but continued to sign his name a ...

for his botanical works. The species name is 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 ...

adjective ''montanus'' and refers to its montane habitat. Its common name refers to its red-tipped rocket-shaped flowerheads. Phylogenetic studies often place this genus as basal (one of the earliest offshoots) to the rest of the Proteaceae, though its exact position and relationships are unclear. A 2006 analysis, sythesesizing of molecular and other studies, by Weston and Barker located it as sister to the subfamily Persoonioideae, the two sharing a common ancestor which diverged from the other Proteaceae. However, the genus has an anatomical feature, laterocytic stomata (having 3 or more parallel specialised subsidiary cells), which it shares with the

Platanaceae Platanaceae, the "plane-tree family", is a family of flowering plants in the order Proteales. The family consists of only a single extant genus ''Platanus'', with eight known species. The plants are tall trees, native to temperate and subtrop ...

(next closest relatives to the Proteaceae) and no other Proteaceae, which indicate it diver