Melichrus procumbens

Melichrus procumbens View in CoL

Melichrus procumbens View in CoL was the first species of Melichrus View in CoL described (as M. rotatus View in CoL ) and the taxonomic status of this morphologically distinctive species has never been questioned ( Bentham 1868; von Mueller 1868; Paterson 1958). This species has a geographically disjunct distribution and has been recorded from coastal sands at Hervey Bay south to Sydney, where the type was collected and on usually granitic soils in the New England Tableland bioregion from Stanthorpe to Wollomombi. Paterson (1958, p. 307) described the plants across the disjunct range as ‘morphologically similar’ with the exception of a population near Glen Innes that was ‘in all respects larger … than typical specimens’ and hypothesised to be an autopolyploid. This putative new species was phrase-named Melichrus sp. Torrington (H.T. Kennedy 32) NE Herbarium. Since Paterson’s (1958) revision, a morphologically allied population was collected in Colo Gorge, New South Wales as M. procumbens View in CoL and is here given the phrase name M. sp. Colo Gorge (I.R. Telford 8659) NE Herbarium. Sampling across the geographic range of M. procumbens View in CoL is needed to test the relationship between morphologically dissimilar and geographically disjunct populations.