''Conospermum longifolium'', commonly known as the long leaf smokebush, is a species of flowering plant of 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 ...

and is

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 ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. It is a dense shrub or undershrub with linear to narrowly lance-shaped leaves,

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

s of white flowers and velvety, cream-coloured to dark brown

nuts Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed * Nut (food), a dry and edible fruit or seed, including but not limited to true nuts * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut, NUT or Nuts may also refer to: A ...

Description

''Conospermum longifolium'' is a dense shrub or undershrub that typically grows to a height of up to and is covered with fine hairs. The leaves are linear to narrowly lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide,

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

. The flowers are arranged in panicles of up to 4 flowers on a peduncle long with glabrous, egg-shaped

bracteole In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

s long and wide. The

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower. It is a structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepal ...

is white, forming a tube long. The upper lip is egg-shaped, long and wide, the lower lip joined for with elliptic lobes long and wide. Flowering occurs in spring, and the fruit is a hairy cream-coloured to dark brown nut long with golden hairs.

Taxonomy

''Conospermum longifolium'' was first formally described in 1806 by James Edward Smith in his book, '' Exotic Botany'', from a specimen collected from

Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...

. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''longifolium'') means 'long-flowered'. In 1975, Lawrie Johnson and Donald McGillivray described 3 subspecies of ''C. longifolium'' in the journal '' Telopea'', and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Sys ...

: * ''Conospermum longifolium'' subsp. ''angustifolium'' (

Meisn. Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner (1 November 1800 – 2 May 1874) was a Swiss botanist. Biography Born in Bern, Switzerland on 1 November 1800, he was christened Meisner but later changed the spelling of his name to Meissner. For most of his 40 ...

) Lawrie Johnson & McGill. has linear to narrowly egg-shaped leaves less than wide. * ''Conospermum longifolium'' Sm. subsp. ''longifolium'' has spatula-shaped to narrowly egg-shaped leaves more than wide. * ''Conospermum longifolium'' subsp. ''mediale'' L.A.S.Johnson & McGill. has linear to narrowly egg-shaped leaves more than wide.

Distribution and habitat

Long leaf smokebush grows in forest, woodland and heath on sandy soils on the coast and ranges of New South Wales between

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle, also commonly referred to as Greater Newcastle ( ; ), is a large Metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of City of Newcastle, Newcastle and Ci ...

and

Ulladulla Ulladulla () is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has cl ...

. Subspecies ''angustifolium'' is restricted to an area between

Waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

and

Appin Appin () is a coastal district of the Scottish West Highlands bounded to the west by Loch Linnhe, to the south by Loch Creran, to the east by the districts of Benderloch and Lorne, and to the north by Loch Leven. It lies northeast to southw ...

, subsp. ''longifolium'' mainly in coastal area between Port Jackson and

Lake Conjola Lake Conjola is a small town situated on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in the region of Ulladulla, in the City of Shoalhaven. At the , Lake Conjola had a population of 437. Lake Conjola is a popular tourist destin ...

and subp. ''mediale'' mainly in the Blue Mountains between

Putty PuTTY () is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection. It can also connect to a se ...

and

Moss Vale Moss Vale is a town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. Moss Vale is the administrative centre of Wingecarribee Shire local government area. It is located south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. The Illawarra Hi ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5162330, from2=Q39611681, from3=Q100450810, from4=Q55839607 longifolium Flora of New South Wales Taxa named by James Edward Smith Plants described in 1806