Isopogon sphaerocephalus - Flickr - Kevin Thiele

''Isopogon sphaerocephalus'', commonly known as drumstick isopogon or Lesueur isopogon, is a species of plant in 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 ...

to the south-west of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is a shrub with linear to narrow egg-shaped leaves and spherical heads of hairy white to creamy yellow flowers.

Description

''Isopogon sphaerocaphalus'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy brownish young branchlets and hairy young leaves. The leaves are linear to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide with a small point on the end. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets in sessile, spherical heads in diameter with hairy, egg-shaped

involucral bracts 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 ...

at the base. The flowers are densely hairy, white to pale or creamy yellow and up to long. Flowering occurs from July to January and the fruit is a hairy nut, fused with others in a conical to oblong head in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Isopogon sphaerocephalus'' was first formally described by botanist

John Lindley John Lindley Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidology, orchidologist. Early years Born in Old Catton, Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four c ...

in ''

A sketch of the vegetation of the Swan River Colony "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony", also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Sketch Veg. Swan R.'', is an 1839 article by John Lindley on the flora of the Swan River Colony. Nearly 300 new species were published in it ...

'' in 1839. In 2019,

Barbara Lynette Rye Barbara Lynette Rye is an Australian botanist born in 1952. Barbara Rye has been associated with the Western Australian Herbarium, where her work as a taxonomist has been the source of many new descriptions of plants. The number of taxa recorded ...

described two subspecies of ''I. sphaerocephalus'' in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

'' but the names have not been assessed 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 ...

as at November 2020: * ''Isopogon sphaerocephalus'' Lindl. subsp. ''sphaerocephalus'', commonly known as "drumstick isopogon"; * ''Isopogon sphaerocephalus'' subsp. ''lesueurensis'' Rye, commonly known as "Lesueur isopogon" has a longer pollen presenter, hairier branchlets and leaves and more crowded, broader leaves than the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

. 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 ...

(''sphaerocephalus'') means "spherical-headed", and ''lesueurensis'' refers to Mount Lesueur, where this subspecies occurs.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''sphaerocephalus'' grows in

Jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rough, fibro ...

forest between Gidgegannup, the

Scott River The Scott River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 9, 2011 river in Siskiyou County, California, United States. It is a tributary of the Klamath River, one of the ...

area and the

Kent River The Kent River is a river in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise near Tenterden. The river flows in a south-westerly direction, crosses the Muir Highway east of Rocky Gully, flows through Mount R ...

in the

Jarrah Forest Jarrah Forest, also known as the Southwest Australia woodlands, is an interim Australian bioregion and ecoregion located in the south west of Western Australia.

, Mallee,

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

and

Warren Warren most commonly refers to: * Warren (burrow), a network dug by rabbits * Warren (name), a given name and a surname, including lists of persons so named Warren may also refer to: Places Australia * Warren (biogeographic region) * War ...

biogeographic regions. Subspecies ''lesueurensis'' grows in shrubland on and near the sides and bases of hills in the

Mount Lesueur Mount Lesueur is a near-circular, flat-topped mesa located from Jurien Bay in Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

area.

Conservation status

Both subspecies of ''I. sphaerocephalus'' are listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6086249 sphaerocephalus Eudicots of Western Australia Taxa named by John Lindley Plants described in 1839