Persoonia linearis
Persoonia linearis, commonly known as the narrow-leaved geebung, is a shrub native to New South Wales and Victoria in eastern Australia. It is a member of the Lanceolata group of 58 closely related species. Found in dry sclerophyll forest on sandstone-based nutrient-deficient soils, P. linearis is adapted to a fire-prone environment.
About Persoonia linearis in brief
Persoonia linearis, commonly known as the narrow-leaved geebung, is a shrub native to New South Wales and Victoria in eastern Australia. It is a member of the Lanceolata group of 58 closely related species. Found in dry sclerophyll forest on sandstone-based nutrient-deficient soils, P. linearis is adapted to a fire-prone environment. The small yellow flowers appear in summer, autumn and early winter, followed by small green fleshy fruit known as drupes. The fruit are consumed by vertebrates such as kangaroo, possums and currawongs. P. linearis is rare in cultivation as it is very hard to propagate by seed or by cuttings, but once propagated, it adapts readily, preferring acidic soils with good drainage and at least a partly sunny aspect. The genus name derived from the Greek penta- “five” and dactyl “fingers”, and refers to the five-lobed cotyledons. The species name is the Latin linearis “linear”, referring to the shape of the leaves.
The bark is layered, in contrast to Ferdinand von Mueller and others who recorded the bark as smooth, and others have noted the bark to be layered. It reaches 3 m, or occasionally 5 m, in height and has thick, dark grey papery bark. It interbreeds with several other species where they grow together. It was described by Henry Cranke Andrews in 1799, in the second volume of his Botanists Repository, Comprising Colour’d Engravings of New and Rare Plants. In 1870, George Bentham published the first infeneric arrangement of Persoonia in his landmark Flora Australis. He divided the genus into three sections, placing P linearis, Pentadactylon angustifolium, and P walteri. In 1919, French botanist Michel Gandoger described three species all since reallocated to P linearis; phyllostachys from Mount Wilson sent to him by the herbarium.
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This page is based on the article Persoonia linearis published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
