Leucopogon virgatus

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Ericaceae

Plants usually woody, or herbs, sometimes lacking chlorophyll. Leaves spiral , sometimes decussate, margin often toothed . Inflorescence racemose; bracteoles paired , basal. Flowers (4 or) 5-merous. Calyx imbricate. Corolla connate , imbricate. Stamens 10, sometimes with spurs or awns , dehiscing by pores , pollen in tetrads , rarely single. Ovary superior or inferior, placentation axile , rarely parietal , often many ovules per locule. Style ± as long as corolla, slender. Fruit a capsule or berry, rarely a drupe; calyx persistent.

About 125 genera and 4000 species: widely distributed in temperate and subarctic regions, also at high elevations in tropical regions ; 22 genera and 826 species (524 endemic) in China.

The Monotropoideae are here included in the Ericaceae; previously in FRPS (56: 157 216. 1990), they were treated as the Pyrolaceae. Chiogenes, recorded from China in FRPS (57(3) : 69 71. 1991), is here included in Gaultheria. Over the last half century, the Empetraceae have usually been separated from, but closely associated with, the Ericaceae. In their ecology, leaf morphology and insertion , rusts, embryology, stamen anatomy, etc. , they largely agree with that family . Molecular data place Empetrum and its relatives firmly within the Ericaceae, and in particular within the subfamily Ericoideae, in agreement with phytochemical and palynological data, and there they are best recognized as a separate tribe . There are distinctive features of the Empetreae that were responsible for their past familial status, e.g. , reduced perianth with separate members , low ovule number, enlarged stigmas, etc. However, these are likely to be derived features associated with wind pollination. See Kron et al. (Bot. Rev. 68: 335 423. 2002) and the recent treatment of the Ericaceae by Stevens et al. (in Kubitzki, Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 6: 145 194. 2004) .

Several genera and many species are ornamentals . Some fruits of Vaccinium in N China are sweet and edible, but of no particular value to humans. Some species of Chamaedaphne, Craibiodendron, Leucothoë, Lyonia, Pieris, and Rhododendron contain more or less toxic diterpenes, which are harmful to humans or domestic animals.[1]

Physical Description

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 1,397 meters (0 to 4,583 feet).[2]

Taxonomy

Notes

Publishing author : R.Br.

Publication : Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae 1810 (27 Mar. 1810)

Basionym author: (Labill.)

Similar Species

Members of the genus Leucopogon

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 3 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

L. maccraei (Subalpine Beard-Heath) · L. montanus (Snow Beard-Heath) · L. virgatus (Common Beard-Heath)

More Info

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Further Reading

• A bush calendar / by Amy E. Mack (Mrs. Launcelot Harrison); with forty-two illustrations from nature Sydney [Australia]: Angus & Robertson, 1909 url p. 109.
• Illustrations of Australian plants collected in 1770 during Captain Cook's voyage round the world in H.M.S. Endeavour /by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, with determinations by James Britten. 2 1901 London, Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, sold by Longmans, 1900-05. url p. 57.
• Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. Sydney, Linnean Society of New South Wales. url , p. 15, p. 16, p. 20, p. 235, p. 285, p. 293, p. 294, p. 35, p. 403, p. 428, p. 47, p. 53, p. 54, p. 56, p. 6, p. 707.
• Report of the Australian Association for the advancement of Science. Sidney, The Association. url p. 472.
• South Australian naturalist. AdelaideFelstead and Omsby. url p. 40.
• The Garden: an illustrated weekly journal of gardening in all its branches. London: [s.n., url p. 513.
• The Victorian naturalist. [Melbourne]Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. url p. 109, p. 170, p. 178, p. 5, p. 54, p. 57, p. 74, p. 87.
• The illustrated dictionary of gardening, a practical and scientific encyclopedia of horticulture for gardeners and botanists. Ed. by George Nicholson. Assisted by Professor J. W. H. Trail and J. Garrett. London: L. U. Gill, [1884]-89. url p. 257.
• Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia (Incorporated). Adelaide: W.C. Rigby, 1912-1937. url p. 40, p. 455.
• Chou Yiliang & Zhou Ruichang. 1990. Pyrolaceae. In: Fang Wenpei & Hu Wenkuang, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 56: 157216
• Fang Rhuicheng, Yang Hanbi & Chin Tsenli. 1999. Ericaceae (1). In: Fang Rhuicheng, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(1): 1213
• Hsu Tingzhi, Gao Baochun, Fang Rhuicheng & Huang Shuhua. 1991. Ericaceae (3). In: Fang Rhuicheng, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(3): 1207
• Hu Wenkuang, Hu Lincheng, Fang Mingyuan & He Mingyou. 1994. Ericaceae (2). In: Hu Lincheng, Fang Mingyuan, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(2): 1438
• Ming Tien lu. 1980. Empetraceae. In: Cheng Mien & Ming Tien lu, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 45(1): 6062.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 01, 2008:

• Australian National Herbarium (CANB)
• GBIF-Spain: Real Jardin Botanico (Madrid), Vascular Plant Herbarium (MA)

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 3421065
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:76156-3
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 325503-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 955983

Footnotes

1. Mingyuan Fang, Ruizheng Fang, Mingyou He, Linzheng Hu, Hanbi Yang, Haining Qin, Tianlu Min, David F. Chamberlain, Peter Stevens, Gary D. Wallace & Arne Anderberg "Ericaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 242. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Mean = 284.830 meters (934.482 feet), Standard Deviation = 325.490 based on 244 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.