Coastal jugflower (Adenanthos cuneatus)

Description

Adenanthos cuneatus, also known as coastal jugflower, flame bush, bridle bush and sweat bush, is a shrub of the family Proteaceae native to the south coast of Western Australia. The French naturalist Jacques Labillardière originally described it in 1805. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Adenanthos and is most closely related to A. stictus. A. cuneatus has hybridized with four other species of Adenanthos. Growing to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high and wide, it is erect to prostrate in habit, with wedge-shaped lobed leaves covered in fine silvery hair. The single red flowers are insignificant, and appear all year, though especially in late spring. The reddish new growth occurs over the summer. It is sensitive to Phytophthora cinnamomi dieback, hence requiring a sandy soil and good drainage to grow in cultivation, its natural habitat of sandy soils in heathland being an example. Its pollinators include bees, honey possum, silvereye and honeyeaters, particularly the western spinebill. A. cuneatus is grown in gardens in Australia and the western United States, and a dwarf and prostrate form are commercially available. Adenanthos cuneatus grows as an erect, spreading or prostrate shrub to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high and wide. It has a woody base, known as a lignotuber, from which it can resprout after bushfire. The wedge-shaped (cuneate) leaves are on short petioles, and are 2 cm (0.8 in) long and 1–1.5 cm (0.4–0.6 in) wide, with 3 to 5 (and occasionally up to 7) rounded 'teeth' or lobes at the ends. New growth is red and slightly translucent. It glows bright red against the light, especially when the sun is low in the sky. New growth is mainly seen in summer, and the leaves in general are covered with fine, silvery hair. Occurring throughout the year but more often from August to November, the insignificant single flowers are a dull red in colour and measure around 4 cm (1.6 in) long. The pollen is triangular in shape and measures 31–44 μm (0.0012–0.0017 in) in length, averaging around 34 μm (0.0013 in). The species is similar in many ways to its close relative A. stictus. The most obvious difference is in habit: the multi-stemmed, lignotuberous A. cuneatus rarely grows over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height, whereas A. stictus is a taller single-stemmed non-lignotuberous shrub that commonly reaches 5 m (16 ft 5 in) in height. Leaves are similar, but the lobes at the leaf apex are regular and crenate (rounded) in A. cuneatus, but irregular and dentate (toothed) in A. stictus. Also, new growth does not have a red flush in A. stictus, and juvenile leaves of A. stictus are usually much larger than adult leaves, a difference not seen in A. cuneatus. The flowers of the two species are very similar, differing only subtly in dimension, colour and indumentum.