Persoonia levis
Persoonia levis is a shrub native to New South Wales and Victoria in eastern Australia. It has dark grey papery bark and bright green asymmetrical sickle-shaped leaves up to 14 cm long and 8 cm wide. The small yellow flowers appear in summer and autumn, followed by small green fleshy fruit, which are classified as drupes.
About Persoonia levis in brief
Persoonia levis is a shrub native to New South Wales and Victoria in eastern Australia. It has dark grey papery bark and bright green asymmetrical sickle-shaped leaves up to 14 cm long and 8 cm wide. The small yellow flowers appear in summer and autumn, followed by small green fleshy fruit, which are classified as drupes. It is a member of the Lanceolata group of 58 closely related species. P. levis interbreeds with several other species where they grow together. Despite its horticultural appeal, it is rare in cultivation as it is very hard to propagate, either by seed or cuttings. The longtongue bee Leioproctus carinatifrons is a pollinator of the flowers, and the fruit are consumed by vertebrates such as kangaroos, possums and currawongs.
It grows as a tall shrub to small tree, and can reach 5 m in height. The flaky soft bark is dark grey on the surface, while deeper layers are reddish in colour. Within the bark are epicormic buds, which sprout new growth after bushfire. The bright green foliage, particularly of new growth, stands out against the more subdued tones of the surrounding vegetation and the stems. The smooth fleshy drupe, is green and more or less round, measuring 1 cm by 0.8 cm in diameter. It contains two seeds, and has a spike at the end. The drupe is juicy but stringy when unripe and the seeds and skin are inedible. The species name is the Latin adjective levis, meaning ‘smooth’.
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This page is based on the article Persoonia levis published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
