''Doryanthes excelsa'', commonly known as the gymea lily, is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Doryanthaceae ''Doryanthes'' is the sole genus in the flowering plant Family (biology), family Doryanthaceae. The genus consists of two species, ''Doryanthes excelsa, D. excelsa'' (gymea lily) and ''Doryanthes palmeri, D. palmeri'' (giant spear lily), both en ...

that 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 ...

to coastal areas of

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 ...

near

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. It has sword-like leaves more than long and it grows a flower spike up to high. The apex of the spike bears a large cluster of bright red flowers, each across. Its common name is derived from ''kai'mia'' (anglicised as ''Gymea'') in the indigenous

Dharawal language The Dharawal language, also spelt Tharawal and Thurawal, and also known as Wodiwodi and other variants, is an Australian Aboriginal language of New South Wales. Phonology Consonants Vowels Vowels are phonemically /a i u/. Vocabulary Bel ...

. The Sydney suburbs of Gymea and

Gymea Bay The Gymea Bay is a bay on the upper estuarine Port Hacking River, fed by the Coonong Creek in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia Location and features The bay, the locality, suburb of and the adjacent suburb of Gymea, N ...

are named after the lily.

Description

Gymea lilies have a

rosette Rosette is the French diminutive of ''rose''. It may refer to: Flower shaped designs * Rosette (award), a mark awarded by an organisation * Rosette (design), a small flower design *hence, various flower-shaped or rotational symmetric forms: ** R ...

of large numbers of sword-shaped, strap like leaves long and wide. The leaves are bright green, fibrous and

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, ...

. In winter the flower spike grows from the centre of the rosette until it is up to high, bearing shorter leaves up to long. At the top of the spike, a head of flowers in diameter develops, each flower being bright red,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

-shaped and about long. The head is surrounded by reddish-brown

bract 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 lo ...

s, sometimes making it difficult to see the flowers from the ground. Flowering occurs in spring and is followed by oval-shaped reddish-brown capsules, long. In late summer, the capsule splits open and releases the seeds which are long. The flowers are pollinated by bees and nectar-feeding birds.

Taxonomy and naming

''Doryanthes excelsa'' was first formally described in 1802 by the Portuguese

polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

José Correia da Serra José Francisco Correia da Serra (6 June 1750 – 11 September 1823) was a Portuguese abbot, polymath, philosopher, diplomat, politician and scientist. In some circumstances, he was also known as ''Abbé Correa.'' The plant genus Correa (plant), ...

from the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

specimen collected by

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early life Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George B ...

"in mountainous parts of the colony of N.S.W.". The description was published in ''

Transactions of the Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

''. The

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 ...

name (''Doryanthes'') is derived from the

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 ...

''δόρυ (dóry)'' meaning a "spear" and ''ἄνθος (ánthos)'' meaning "a flower". 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 ...

(''excelsa'') is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word meaning "high", "lofty" or "distinguished". ''Doryanthes excelsa'' and '' Doryanthes palmeri'' are the only two members of the family Doryanthaceae. "Doryanthes" has inspired the naming of the journal of history and heritage for Southern Sydney founded by

Dharawal The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coasta ...

historian Les Bursill.

Habitat

''Doryanthes excelsa'' requires very specific conditions in order to flourish. It requires low-nutrient,

acidic soil Soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a soil. Soil pH is a key characteristic that can be used to make informative analysis both qualitative and quantitatively regarding soil characteristics. pH is defined as the nega ...

s with a pH of about 4.1 that are moderately deep, sandy, and earthy. It grows specifically on slopes that face south or southeast, along creeks, gullies or sheltered plateaus and ridges, at elevations of 100–200 metres above sea level. The plant grows in open dry

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...

forests which also have ''

Angophora costata ''Angophora costata'', commonly known as Sydney red gum, rusty gum or smooth-barked apple, is a species of tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. Reaching in height, the species has distinctive smooth bark that is pinkish or orange-brown wh ...

'', '' Eucalyptus piperita'', '' E. gummifera'', '' E. sieberi'', or '' E. punctata'', as well as in habitats with ''

Xanthorrhoea ''Xanthorrhoea'' () is a genus of about 30 species of Succulent plant, succulent flowering plants in the family Asphodelaceae. They are Endemism, endemic to Australia. Common names for the plants include grasstree, grass gum-tree (for resin-yie ...

'', '' Telopea'', and moisture-preferring groundcover plant species.

Distribution

''Doryanthes excelsa'' has a discontinuous distribution along the coast of

. It is found in Corindi (north of

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour, locally nicknamed Coffs, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 a ...

) in the north, and in areas surrounding

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

(including Awaba) down to

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

in the south. It is not found directly east or west of urbanized areas of

. Specific areas where it is found include Newfoundland State Forest, Kremnos Creek (located just north of Glenreagh), Karuah,

Nelson Bay Nelson Bay may refer to: *Nelson Bay, New South Wales Nelson Bay is a significant township of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on a bay of the same name on the southern ...

, Somersby, Calga, Lucas Heights, Heathcote National Park, Darkes Forest,

Dharug National Park The Dharug National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated approximately north of the Sydney and west of . The park contains the ...

, and

Royal National Park The Royal National Park is a state park, protected national park that is located in the Sutherland Shire local government area in Southern Sydney and in the City of Wollongong local government area in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Au ...

. The isolated northernmost populations located north of

are the most genetically divergent.

Uses

Indigenous use

Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

roasted the young stems of gymea lily for eating. They also roasted the roots to make a kind of cake. Fibres from the leaves were used for making brushes and matting.

Horticulture

Gymea lilies are hardy and adaptable plants often used in

landscape gardening A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Diction ...

, not only in the Sydney region but also in other coastal areas such as

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. Plants can be grown from seed but may not flower for up to eight years. Flowering can be encouraged by fire and by carefully placing a stone in the centre of the rosette.

Image gallery

Image:GymeaLily UNSW Flowers.jpg, Flowers Image:Doryanthes excelsa - Morren.jpg, Flowers Image:GymeaLilyFlowerSeeds.jpg, Flowers and past seeds Image:Doryanthes-excelsa_Fitch.jpg, Illustration Image:GymeaLiliLeaves.jpg, Sword-like leaves Image:Austnativheathcote.jpg, ''Doryanthes excelsa'' growing in natural habitat in Heathcote National Park, Sydney Image:Doryanthes excelsa flower - Awaba 009.jpg, ''Doryanthes excelsa'' growing in natural habitat in

Awaba, New South Wales Awaba () is a town and locality in the City of Lake Macquarie, Greater Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, inland from Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by populati ...

Image:Chosen1.JPG, Habit Image: Doryanthes excelsa seed head PB060049.jpg, Seed head

References

External links

''Doryanthes excelsa'' Occurrence data
from

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=Q3269736 Doryanthaceae Flora of New South Wales Endemic flora of Australia Asparagales of Australia Garden plants of Australia Drought-tolerant plants Plants described in 1802