''Spyridium majoranifolium'' is a species of flowering plant in the family
Rhamnaceae
The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales.
The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae ...
and is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...
to the south of Western Australia. It is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has white to cream-coloured or yellow flowers from February to October. It grows on coastal dunes and stony hillsides in near-coastal areas in the
Esperance Plains
Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is ...
,
Jarrah Forest
Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is '' Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is ...
and
Warren
A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...
bioregions of southern Western Australia.
This spyridium was first formally described in 1837 by
Eduard Fenzl
Eduard Fenzl (1808, in Krummnußbaum – 1879, in Vienna) was an Austrian botanist.
Life and contributions
An obituary notes " was Professor of Botany and Director of the Imperial Botanical Cabinet, a member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences ...
who gave it the name ''Trymalium majoranifolium'' in ''
'' from specimens collected by
Ferdinand Bauer
Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (20 January 1760 – 17 March 1826) was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia.
Biography Early life and career
Bauer was born in Feldsberg in 1760, the youngest son o ...
.
In 1995,
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 record ...
changed the name to ''Spyridium majoranifolium'' 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 ...
''.
The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
(''majoranifolium'') means "
marjoram
Marjoram (; ''Origanum majorana'') is a cold-sensitive perennial herb or undershrub with sweet pine and citrus flavours. In some Middle Eastern countries, marjoram is synonymous with oregano, and there the names sweet marjoram and knotted mar ...
-leaved".
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15529536
majoranifolium
Rosales of Australia
Flora of Western Australia
Plants described in 1837
Taxa named by Eduard Fenzl