Narrow leaf drumsticks (Orites revoluta)
Description
Orites revolutus , also known as narrow-leaf orites, is a Tasmanian endemic plant species in the family Proteaceae. Scottish botanist Robert Brown formally described the species in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London in 1810 from a specimen collected at Lake St Clair.2 Abundant in alpine and subalpine heath, it is a small to medium shrub 0.5 to 1.5 m (1 ft 8 in to 4 ft 11 in) tall, with relatively small, blunt leaves with strongly revolute margins. The white flowers grow on terminal spikes during summer. Being proteaceaous, O. revolutus is likely to provide a substantial food source for nectivorous animal species within its range.Orites revolutus grows as a spreading bush or an erect, woody shrub, usually 0.5�1.5 m (1 ft 8 in�4 ft 11 in) in height. Branching is dense and the leaves are alternate up the stem. Leaf shape is narrow and fairly blunt at the apex, 7�20 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, with tightly revolute margins and a hairy surface on the underside. Flowering occurs in early to mid-summer with the sour-scented flowers arising on terminal spikes to twice the length of the leaves. White in colour, they are 5 mm long, actinomorphic and bisexual with 4 adnate stamens and a superior ovary. The corolla is valvate, tubular in bud and split at maturity. Fruit is a hairy follicle to 15mm containing winged seeds.The species is often confused with Olearia ledifolia in the field, however this unrelated plant lacks the woody follicles.
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: Orites
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