Buckinghamia
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''Buckinghamia'' is a
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of only two known species of trees, belonging to the plant 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 ...
. They are
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...
to the rainforests of the wet tropics region of north eastern
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, Australia. The ivory curl flower, ''B. celsissima'', is the well known, popular and widely cultivated species in gardens and parks, in eastern and southern mainland Australia, and additionally as street trees north from about Brisbane. The second species, ''B. ferruginiflora'', was only recently described in 1988.


History, classification and evolution

The genus was named in 1868 by
Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...
in honour of Richard Grenville, the
Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham, referring to the market town of Buckingham, England, is an extinct title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There were creations of double dukedoms of Bucki ...
, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1866 to 1868. It was initially placed in a tribe Grevilleae, but the feature of having four ovules per carpel led C. Venkata Rao to classify it in the tribe Telopeae, and within this a new subtribe Hollandaeae based on the antero-posterior orientation of the perianth, with the genera ''Hollandaea'', ''Cardwellia'', ''Knightia'', ''Opisthiolepis'' and ''Stenocarpus''. Lawrie Johnson and Barbara G. Briggs recognised the affinities of this genus with the rainforest
taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...
'' Opisthiolepis'' and classified the two in the subtribe Buckinghamiinae within the tribe Embothrieae in the subfamily
Grevilleoideae The Grevilleoideae are a subfamily of the plant family Proteaceae. Mainly restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, it contains around 46 genus, genera and about 950 species. Genera include ''Banksia'', ''Grevillea'', and ''Macadamia''. Descriptio ...
in their 1975 monograph " On the Proteaceae: the evolution and classification of a southern family", and thus related to '' Lomatia'', '' Stenocarpus'' and the Embothriinae. However, analysis of
chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle, organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant cell, plant and algae, algal cells. Chloroplasts have a high concentration of chlorophyll pigments which captur ...
sequences revealed a much closer relationship of ''Buckinghamia'' and ''Opisthiolepis'' with ''Grevillea'' instead. Both genera have eleven pairs of
chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...
s, which is reduced further in ''Grevillea''. More recent evolutionary botanical science confirms that they correlate closest with the genera ''Opisthiolepis'', '' Finschia'', ''
Grevillea ''Grevillea'' (), commonly known as spider flowers, is a genus of about 360 species of evergreen flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Plants in the genus ''Grevillea'' are shrubs, rarely trees, with the leaves arranged alternately along the ...
'' and ''
Hakea ''Hakea'' ( ) is a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants in the family ''Proteaceae'', endemic to Australia. They are shrubs or small trees with leaves that are sometimes flat, otherwise circular in cross section in which case they are s ...
'' in the subtribe Hakeinae, with ''Buckinghamia'' and ''Opisthiolepis'' as two early offshoots from the ancestors of the other three genera.


Species and summary descriptions

* '' Buckinghamia celsissima'' , ivory curl, ivory curl flower, spotted silky oak, buckinghamia silky oak * '' Buckinghamia ferruginiflora'' ''Buckinghamia celsissima'' (ivory curl flower) trees grow up to about tall in Australian gardens, parks and botanic gardens and much taller naturally to about . The leaves are glossy dark green, and either lobed or entire, with new growth flushed pink. Spectacular in flower, they bear long showy sprays of sweetly fragrant, creamy-white flowers in summer. In a garden they can grow in full sun or part shade, and will attract birds and bees. Hardy and spectacular trees, they make ideal screens or windbreaks in a garden. ''B. celsissima'' (ivory curl flower) trees in the botanic gardens in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have been in cultivation for over a hundred years. They grow outdoors successfully in places as temperate as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. Its notable landscape designer and director William Guilfoyle already had them growing there over one hundred years ago, resulting today in beautifully flowering, slow growing, established small trees. In the same late 1800s period the Adelaide Botanic Gardens already had them in cultivation also. They are popular and widely cultivated in many parks and gardens in coastal regions of eastern and southern mainland Australia, notably also their long history of planting in Brisbane as street trees. ''B. celsissima'' rainforest trees grow naturally up to about tall in tropical rainforests of north eastern Queensland from about altitude. ''Buckinghamia ferruginiflora'' (Noah's Oak, Spotted Oak) is a species of rainforest trees growing naturally up to about tall. Botanists scientifically recognised these trees’ differences only from about the early 1970s. They have only found them growing naturally in a restricted area of the Daintree region. They grow in luxuriant tropical rainforests from sea level through an area of lowlands up to lower uplands at an altitude of about . ''Buckinghamia ferruginiflora'' was formally scientifically described in 1988 by Don Foreman and Bernie Hyland. They have: branchlets often hairy; leaves long, wide; buds, shoots and flower structures with dense ferruginous (rusty coloured) hairs; flower structures of compound
inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...
s long; individual flowers creamy brown, with the dense rusty hairs on the
tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...
s’ outer surfaces; styles shorter () than ''B. celsissima'' (); fruits follicles long; seeds flat with a small wing. ''B. ferruginiflora''’s, restricted, endemic, distribution has obtained the conservation status of "near threatened" currently officially listed by the Queensland government legislation, the
Nature Conservation Act 1992 The ''Nature Conservation Act 1992'' is an act of the Parliament of Queensland, Australia, that, together with subordinate legislation, provides for the legislative protection of Queensland's threatened biota. As originally published, it prov ...
.


References


External links


Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants (ASGAP): ''Buckinghamia celsissima''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2713928 Proteales of Australia Proteaceae genera Endemic flora of Queensland Wet Tropics of Queensland