''Stenocarpus cunninghamii'', commonly known as little wheel bush, is a species of flowering 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 northern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with

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, narrow elliptic or lance-shaped adult leaves, groups of pale yellow or white flowers and woody, linear follicles.

Description

''Stenocarpus cunninghamii'' is a shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of , with a dbh of up to . The adult leaves are narrow elliptic or narrow lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a petiole long. Juvenile leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped in outline and lobed or deeply bipinnately-lobed. The flower groups are arranged in leaf axils with 14 to 21 flowers on a peduncle long, the individual flowers pale yellow to white and long, each on a pedicel long. Flowering occurs from March to May and the fruit is a woody, linear follicle long, containing winged seeds.

Taxonomy

''Stenocarpus cunninghamii'' was first formally described in 1830 by

Robert Brown Robert Brown may refer to: Robert Brown (born 1965), British Director, Animator and author Entertainers and artists * Washboard Sam or Robert Brown (1910–1966), American musician and singer * Robert W. Brown (1917–2009), American printmaker ...

in an

addendum An addendum or appendix, in general, is an addition required to be made to a document by its author subsequent to its printing or publication. It comes from the gerundive , plural , "that which is to be added", from (, compare with memorandum, ...

to the '' Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae''. 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 ...

(''cunninghamii'') honours the botanical collector Allan Cunningham.

Distribution and habitat

Little wheel bush usually grows in narrow sandstone gorges and in forest and dry scrub from the coast of the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region in Western Australia to near

Wadeye Wadeye ( ) is a town in Australia's Northern Territory (NT). It was formerly known (and is still often referred to) as Port Keats, a name originating from Port Keats Mission, which operated from 1935 (originally at a different location, known as ...

in the Northern Territory and on

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18073818 Flora of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland cunninghamii Plants described in 1830 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)