Adenanthos obovatus

Adenanthos obovatus is a shrub of the plant family Proteaceae endemic to Southwest Australia. It grows as a many-stemmed spreading bush up to 1 m high, and about 1. 5 m across, with fine bright green foliage. Made up of single red flowers, the inflorescences appear from April to December, and peak in spring.

About Adenanthos obovatus in brief

Summary Adenanthos obovatusAdenanthos obovatus is a shrub of the plant family Proteaceae endemic to Southwest Australia. It grows as a many-stemmed spreading bush up to 1 m high, and about 1. 5 m across, with fine bright green foliage. Made up of single red flowers, the inflorescences appear from April to December, and peak in spring. The shrub grows on sandy soils in seasonally wet lowland areas as well as hills and dunes. It regenerates after bushfire by resprouting from its underground lignotuber. Pollinators include honeyeaters, particularly the western spinebill, which can access the nectar with its long curved bill, and the silvereye, which punctures the flower tube. The species has hybridized with A.detmoldii to produce the hybrid A.  × pamela. The most commonly cultivated Adenanthos species in Australia, it has a long flowering period and attracts honeyeater to the garden. It is harvested for the cut flower industry. The flowers appear steadily between April and December and are most frequent between August and October. They are red or orange, and emerge from the leaf axils, and are usually solitary, but occasionally an axil will carry two flowers. Each flower consists of a perianth of four united tepals, and a single style.

In A. obovatus, the peranth is around 25 mm long, and the style around 40 mm. Although the flowering period is lengthy, there are generally only a few flowers at any one time. The leaves of this species are bright green, oval in shape, up to 20 mm long and 15 mm wide, sessile, and arranged in a spiral pattern on the branches. There are obvious differences in typical leaf shape, with leaves of most populations of A  barbiger being very much longer and narrower than those of A obvatus. However, leaf shape is variable in both species, and some southern populations of a. Barbiger have leaves that are indistinguishable from those of A. obovatu. Other early collections include a specimen collected by Scottish botanist Robert Brown during the visit of HMS Investigator to King George Sound in 1801 and January 1802; and specimens collected by Jean Baptiste Baptiste Leschenault de Toure la Toure in 1802. In his notes on vegetation, Antichenaire Guichena’s boy boy’s boy’s descriptions of vegetation published in his official account of the voyage, he writes: ‘Sur les les bords de la grande abondance, ladena ladenos cadenos ladeno sera’