Emblingia

Taxobox
name = "Emblingia"
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Eudicots
unranked_ordo = Rosids
ordo = Brassicales
familia = Emblingiaceae
familia_authority = (Pax) Airy Shaw
genus = "Emblingia"
genus_authority = F.Muell.
species = "E. calceoliflora"
binomial = Emblingia calceoliflora
binomial_authority = F.Muell.

"Emblingia" is a monospecific plant genus containing the species "Emblingia calceoliflora", a herbaceous prostrate subshrub endemic to Western Australia. It has no close relatives, and is now generally placed alone in family Emblingiaceae.

Description

It is a perennial, herbaceous prostrate subshrub, with simple petiolate leaves with cartilage in their margins. The irregular, solitary flowers are white, cream, yellow, green or, pink, and occur from August to November. It has a non-fleshy fruit.cite web | author = Watson, L., and M. J. Dallwitz | year = 1992 onwards | title = Emblingiaceae | work = The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval | url = http://delta-intkey.com/angio/www/emblingi.htm | accessdate = 2007-05-12] FloraBase | name = Emblingiaceae | id = 22822] FloraBase | name = Emblingia | id = 21462] FloraBase | name = Emblingia calceoliflora | id=2989]

Taxonomy

The genus and species were first published in 1861 by Ferdinand von Mueller in "Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae", based on specimens collected in the Murchison region by Pemberton Walcott and Augustus Frederick Oldfield.APNI | name = Emblingia | id = 57437] APNI | name = Emblingia calceoliflora | id = 57456]

Placement of the genus within a family has previously been considered a difficult problem; it has at various times been placed in Capparaceae, Sapindaceae, Goodeniaceae and, in the Cronquist system, Polygalaceae.cite journal | author = Chandler, Gregory T. and Randall J. Bayer | year = 2000 | title = Phylogenetic placement of the enigmatic Western Australian genus Emblingia based on rbcL sequences | journal = Plant Species Biology | volume = 15 | pages = 57–72 | doi = 10.1046/j.1442-1984.2000.00024.x] In 1965, Herbert Kenneth Airy Shaw erected Emblingiaceae for the genus, and that family is now used for the genus in the APG II, Dahlgren, Reveal, Stevens, Takhtajan and Thorne systems.cite web | url = http://www.life.umd.edu/emeritus/reveal/pbio/usda/usdae.html | accessdate = 2007-05-12 | title = USDA - APHIS - Concordance of Family Names: E] Molecular analyses have confirmed the genus's placement in the Brassicales.cite journal | author = Hall, Jocelyn C., Hugh H. Iltis and Kenneth J. Sytsma | year = 2004 | title = Molecular phylogenetics of core Brassicales, placement of orphan genera Emblingia, Forchhammeria, Tirania, and character evolution | journal = Systematic Botany | volume = 29 | issue = 3 | pages = 654–669 | doi = 10.1600/0363644041744491]

Distribution and habitat

It is endemic to Western Australia, occurring in grey, yellow or red sand, on undulating sandplains of the west coast. It is most common in the Geraldton Sandplains and Carnarvon biogeographic regions, but also occurs on the north western edge of the Avon Wheatbelt.

Ecology

It is not considered to be threatened.

References

Further reading

* Mueller, Ferdinand von (1861) "Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae" 2(15).
* Shaw, H. K. Airy (1965) "Kew Bulletin" 18:257.
*
*