North coast geebung (Persoonia media)
Description
Persoonia media is a plant native to New South Wales and Queensland in eastern Australia. It shows considerable variability, growing as a shrub or tree, with a maximum height anywhere from 30 cm to 25 m. Plants in dry sites south of the Macleay River grow from lignotubers and are short and multi-stemmed, while those growing in wetter areas are taller, single-stemmed and tend to have narrower leaves. The bark of the trunk and branches is smooth, though there are sometimes small fissures at the base of the plant. The elliptic to ovate leaves measure 3–14 cm in length and 0.4–3.5 cm across. The yellow flowers appear from November to April. Prolific botanist Robert Brown described it in 1830. The genus was reviewed by Peter Weston for the Flora of Australia treatment in 1995, and P. media was placed in the Lanceolata group, a group of 54 closely related species with similar flowers but very different foliage. These species will often interbreed with each other where two members of the group occur. Hybrids with P. oleoides, P. linearis P. conjuncta and possibly P. adenantha have been recorded. Persoonia media is found in New South Wales with Barrington Tops as the southern limit of its range, the upper Manning River and Chaelundi Mountain north along the eastern part of the New England Tableland to the Nightcap National Park and into southeastern Queensland, where it is found on the Lamington and Springbrook Plateaus. It grows in dry sclerophyll forest, as well as wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest, and is found on acidic igneous- and metamorphic rock-based soils. Fieldwork in New England found that it is killed by fire and regenerates from seed. It takes around 5 to 6 years to reach maturity from seed, though is generally a short-lived plant with a life span of twenty years or less.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Proteales
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Family: Proteaceae
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Genus: Persoonia
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