Melichrus adpressus

Melichrus adpressus View in CoL

The nomenclatural history of Melichrus adpressus is convoluted. The name M. adpressus was first applied to a collection made by Cunningham near Wellington Valley, New South Wales ( De Candolle 1839). Later, Mueller listed M. adpressus as synonymous with Styphelia cunninghamii ( von Mueller 1868, p. 39) , which was described from specimens collected in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. In doing so, an illegitimate name was erected and applied to two morphologically and geographically disjunct entities. Paterson (1958, p. 308) stated that:

the type locality of Melichrus adpressus is Wellington Valley but specimens subsequently collected from this area do not agree with the original description, and unfortunately Cunningham’s specimens were unavailable for comparison .

There is uncertainty regarding which specimens Paterson was referring to as ‘subsequently collected’ because no specimens from the Wellington Valley were cited in the revision. Paterson chose to adopt Mueller’s concept of M. adpressus and excluded the strict application of the name in the revision. Easy access to digital images of herbarium specimens (e.g. from JSTOR Global Plants) now greatly facilitates comparison of specimens that were largely inaccessible to earlier workers. See, for example, a specimen of M. adpressus collected by A. Cunningham near Wellington Valley that

(Continued on next page) was seen by De Candolle, compared with a specimen cited by Paterson ( Fig. 2 View Fig ). The morphological disparity between these specimens, including differences in leaf size, shape, margin texture, indumentum and density on stems, suggests that the name M. adpressus is misapplied in Paterson (1958). Herein, the name Melichrus adpressus sensu Paterson (or abbreviated to ‘s. Paterson’ in figures) indicates the use in the sense of von Mueller (1868) and Paterson (1958). When referred to in the original, strict sense of De Candolle (1839) this is denoted M. adpressus sens. str. (see Table 1).

Paterson (1958) noted only minor morphological variability across the range of Melichrus adpressus sensu Paterson. However , observations of herbarium and field specimens made early in this study suggested that this taxonomic consideration may neglect substantial morphological variation. We represent this variation by several phrase names. The northernmost populations of M. adpressus sensu Paterson are restricted to the Herberton area in Queensland and highly geographically disjunct from the southern populations in the state, and were designated as M. sp. Herberton (H.T. Kennedy 91) NE Herbarium. Specimens from the North Coast of New South Wales were morphologically distinctive and phrase named M. sp. Yuraygir (H.T. Kennedy 29) NE. Melichrus sp. Gurulmundi (H.T.Kennedy 69) NE Herbarium was applied to populations of M. adpressus sensu Paterson , found in southern Queensland that also share some morphological affinities with M. urceolatus . Isolated populations of Melichrus resembling M. adpressus sensu Paterson are known from slightly below the rocky outcrop at the summit of Mount Maroon, Queensland (Wahlmoorum of the First Nations’ Yuggera language), the upper slopes of Kroombit Tops National Park, Queensland and the sandy flats of Boonoo Boonoo National Park, New South Wales. The earliest collections of these populations were made in the latter half of the 20th Century, after the publication of Paterson’s (1958) revision. Each population is morphologically distinctive and to each we assigned the respective phrase names M. sp. Wahlmoorum (H.T. Kennedy 78) NE Herbarium, M. sp. Kroombit Tops (H.T. Kennedy 87) NE Herbarium and M. sp. Boonoo Boonoo (H.T. Kennedy 35) NE Herbarium for this study.