Levenhookia preissii (Sond.) F.Muell., Fragm. 4(27): 94, 1864, as Leewenhoekia

Wege, Juliet A., 2020, Styleworts under the microscope: a taxonomic account of Levenhookia (Stylidiaceae), PhytoKeys 151, pp. 1-47 : 1

8. Levenhookia preissii (Sond.) F.Muell., Fragm. 4(27): 94, 1864, as Leewenhoekia Fig. 5D

Coleostylis preissii Sond., in J.G.C. Lehmann, Pl. Preiss. 1(3): 391. 1845.

Leewenhoekia preissii , orth. var.: F. von Mueller, Syst. Census Austral. Pl.: 86. 1882.

Type.

Australia. Western Australia: Swan River, [1841] J. Drummond 1: 515 (lectotype, here designated: BM 000984007; isolectotypes: G 00342974 image!, G 00342988 image!, K 000060074, K 000060076, MEL 2295745, MEL 2295746, OXF, P 00712441 image!, P 00712444 image!, P 00712443 image!, W [2 sheets]); In arenosis cis oppidulum Guildford, 12 Jan 1840, L. Preiss 2250 (syntypes: G 00358747 image!, G 00358748 image!, K 000060078 [as Preiss 842], LD 1730899 image!, MEL 2295748, MEL 2295750B [top individual], P 00712442 image!, TCD [as Preiss 842], W); In arenosis districtus Sussex, 20 Dec 1839, L. Preiss 2249 (syntypes: FI 012788!, G 00358745 image!, G 00358746 image!, K 000060077 [as Preiss 895], LD 1753988 image!, MEL 2295747, MEL 2295749A [2 upper individuals], MEL 2295750A [lower 3 individuals], P 00712441 image!, TCD [as Preiss 895], W [3 sheets]), = L. aestiva Wege.

Description.

Annual herb 6-16 cm high. Glandular hairs somewhat viscid, 0.1-0.5 mm long. Stem pale greenish brown to reddish brown, simple or branched to varying degrees with porrect or ascending lateral branches, glandular-hairy. Leaves cauline, scattered, green or green with a red tinge, glandular-hairy on the margins and abaxially, with a few hairs adaxially (mostly towards the base); lamina narrowly oblanceolate to oblanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 6-22 mm long including the petiole, 0.9-3 mm wide, acute to subacute with a blunt tip. Flowers in racemes (inflorescence corymbose in few-flowered individuals), ca. 10-200+ per plant; bracts narrowly oblanceolate, narrowly lanceolate or ± linear, 1.5-12 mm long, glandular-hairy like the leaves; pedicels 0.5-6 mm long, glandular-hairy. Hypanthium depressed globose to globose, ellipsoid or ovoid, 0.5-1.5 mm long, 0.4-1.5 mm wide, glandular-hairy. Calyx lobes subequal (with the anterior pair 0.5-1 mm longer than the rest and sometimes connate basally), 1.3-3 mm long, acute, glandular-hairy. Corolla pink with dark pink speckles mostly confined to the posterior (upper) lobes, paler abaxially; lobes ± paired vertically or sometimes with the lower pair spreading, ca. 3-4.5 mm long, ca. 1.5-2.5 mm wide, sparsely glandular-hairy abaxially towards the base; anterior lobes elliptic or obovate with a slender claw, ± equal in length to the posterior pair, rounded or subacute; posterior lobes obovate (with a broad but short claw?), bluntly pointed, sometimes gently recurved; tube white, 2-4.5 mm long, exserted 0.5-2 mm beyond the calyx lobes, sparsely glandular-hairy distally. Labellum ventral, ca. 3-4.2 mm long including a 1.2-1.7 mm long claw; hood pink with dark purplish (drying red-maroon) markings, minutely papillate, with a few glandular hairs abaxially; basal appendages yellow or white, ± elliptic, 0.4-0.7 mm long, rounded, minutely papillate; appendage at the cleft apex pink, elliptic to narrowly obovate, 0.7-1.5 mm long, 0.4-0.6 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous. Column sheath white, glabrous, lopsided, ca. 0.5-0.7 mm high on the anterior side, connate with the posterior corolla lobes, with a thickened rim bearing 3 pendulous appendages on the inside. Column white basally, pinkish distally, free, gently forward-arched when enclosed by the labellum, slender but slightly thickened distally, 4.5-7.2 mm long, glabrous; stigmatic lobes to 1.2 mm long, incurved, apparently maturing subsequent to pollen release. Capsule ovoid, ca. 2.5-3 mm long excluding calyx lobes. Seeds 0.4-0.5 mm long, 0.2-0.3 mm wide.

Diagnostic features.

Levenhookia preissii has a long (2-4.5 mm) corolla tube that is exerted beyond the calyx lobes, pink corolla lobes with speckled markings, a long labellum (ca. 3-4.2 mm) with rounded basal appendages and a prominent (0.7-1.5 mm long) apical appendage, and a 4.5-7.2 mm long column subtended by a lopsided column sheath. Its racemes are usually quite elongated (especially in floriferous individuals).

Phenology.

Flowering from late October to January; fruiting in December and January.

Distribution.

Levenhookia preissii is endemic to south-western Australia (Fig. 5C ), where it is restricted to the Swan Coastal Plain bioregion. It is currently known from north-west of Cataby and the Perth metropolitan area, although historical records indicate a distribution that extends south to the Pinjarra area.

Habitat.

This species grows in sand in seasonally-wet habitats or near watercourses, swamps and minor drainage channels in heath or tall shrubland. Associated species include Banksia telmatiaea , Beaufortia squarrosa , Hypocalymma angustifolium , Melaleuca viminea , M. seriata , Regelia ciliata and Verticordia densiflora .

Conservation status.

Levenhookia preissii was recently listed as Priority One under Conservation Codes for Western Australian Flora ( Western Australian Herbarium 1998-; equivalent to IUCN (2012): Data Deficient). It is currently known from two bushland fragments in Perth and from an area north-west of Cataby that is subject to mining. Few plants have been noted with the exception of B.J. Keighery 2546, which was collected the year following a summer fire. The optimal time for survey and conservation assessment is during peak flowering (between mid-November and mid-December), following a summer or autumn fire.

Etymology.

Honours Johann August Ludwig Preiss (1811-1883), who collected extensively in south-western Australia between 4 December 1838 and 8 January 1842 ( George 2009). These collections formed the basis for Lehmann’s Plantae Preissianae , a landmark work on Western Australian botany in which a suite of Stylidiaceae taxa were described ( Sonder 1845).

Vernacular name.

Preiss’s Stylewort ( Erickson 1958).

Typification.

Sonder based his description of Coleostylis preissii on three separate gatherings of which Preiss 2250 (from the Perth suburb of Guildford) and Drummond 515 ('Swan River’) are comparable; however, Preiss 2249 (from the more southerly 'Sussex District’, i.e. between Capel and Toby’s Inlet: see Marchant 1990) represents a distinct species. Lectotypification is necessary to fix the application of the name L. preissii .

Sonder viewed material of both Preiss gatherings at LD and in his personal herbarium, which is now at MEL. The LD material is fragmentary, comprising one or two inflorescence portions. The Preiss material at MEL is more complete but difficult to interpret-there are few readily visible flowers, labelling is ambiguous and one of the sheets (MEL 2295750) contains material from both gatherings. This sheet includes four individuals, several floral dissections and Sonder’s sketches and notes (which indicate that he observed differences in labellum size and appendage morphology between the two gatherings). The uppermost individual belongs to Preiss 2250, while the remaining three individuals appear to match Preiss 2249. I have not been able to confidently assign all fragments contained in the attached packet, but I have separated several that seem to be referable to Preiss 2250, including dissected flowers. I have been unable to find a dissection for Preiss 2249 despite Sonder’s floral sketches.

Given the difficulties associated with interpreting the Preiss material at MEL, the fragmentary nature of the duplicates at LD and, indeed, the generally poor quality of the material, I have made the pragmatic decision to lectotypify on the Drummond gathering despite its lack of precise locality. Based on our present day understanding of the species and Drummond’s collecting trips (see George 2009), it is likely to have been collected from the Perth region. BM 000984007 is designated as the lectotype: it comprises four, mostly complete individuals with ample floral material, a small packet with some fragments and a pink annotation slip with the name ' Coleostylis racemiflora Sond.' in Sonder’s hand (an earlier manuscript name that he also wrote on a subset of material at LD and MEL, but subsequently amended). MEL 2295746, from Sonder’s Herbarium, is interpreted as a likely duplicate given that there is an original label with the collector and number (although a photocopy of the Preiss 2249 and 2250 label from MEL 2295750 is also affixed to this sheet). MEL 2295745 is also a duplicate-it has a label in Mueller’s hand and was seen by Bentham for Flora Australiensis, although it does not bear Sonder’s script (although is databased as belonging to Sonder’s Herbarium).

Notes.

There are several morphological features that support a narrower circumscription of L. preissii and the recognition of L. aestiva as a distinct species (refer to the comparative notes provided under L. aestiva ). The two species are geographically separated: historical records of L. preissii extend as far south as the Serpentine and Murray River area near Pinjarra, while the northern-most records of L. aestiva are from the Preston River area east of Bunbury.

Illustrations.

L. Diels & E. Pritzel, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 35: 598, fig. 67 D-G (1905) [reproduced by J. Mildbraed in H.G.A. Engler, Pflanzenr. 35: 29, fig. 10D-G]; R. Erickson, Triggerplants 201, Pl. 57, No. 7 and 212, Pl. 59, Nos. 11-18 [column sheath not clearly depicted].

Specimens examined.

Australia. Western Australia: [precise localities obfuscated for conservation reasons] Guildford, 5 Jan 1951, Anonymous s.n. (PERTH); Bayswater, Dec 1901, C. Andrews s.n. (PERTH); Bullsbrook area, 28 Dec 1971, N.T. Burbidge 7960 (CANB); Bayswater, Dec 1900, Dr Diels & Pritzel 409 (PERTH); Guildford, Jan 1954, R. Erickson s.n. (PERTH); Cannington, Oct 1898, R. Helms s.n. (PERTH); Perth Airport, 20 Oct 1994, B.J. Keighery 2546 (PERTH); NW of Cooljarloo, 1 Dec 2014, M. Matsuki 197A (PERTH); Cannington, 14 Dec 1898, A. Morrison s.n. (BRI, CANB, PERTH); Bayswater, 9 Jan 1899, A. Morrison s.n. (PERTH); Serpentine River, 1 Dec 1877, F. von Mueller s.n. (MEL); Murray River district, Dec 1900, E. Pritzel 128 (PERTH); Bayswater, 26 Dec 1924, O.H. Sargent s.n. (PERTH); [SE of Cervantes], 24 Nov 2005, G. Woodman Opp 5 (PERTH); Leeming, 17 Dec 2011, J.E. Wajon JEW 2533 (PERTH).

Figures

Figure 5. Comparative distributions and floral morphologies A, B Levenhookia pauciflora, a Western Australian endemic with a brush-tipped labellum and distinctive corolla shape (J. A. Wege 1071 & C. Wilkins) C, D L. preissii, a poorly-known Western Australian endemic with distinctive corolla makings, rounded basal labellum appendages and a white, lopsided column sheath (unvouchered, from NW of Cooljarloo) E, F L. aestiva, a Western Australian endemic with oblong-subulate basal labellum appendages and a pink column sheath (J. A. Wege 2090). Photos by J. A. Wege (B), M. Matsuki (D) and R. W. Davis (F). Scale bar on maps 1000 km.