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JOURNAL of the ADELAIDE BOTANIC GARDENS AN OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL FOR AUSTRALIAN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY flora.sa.gov.au/jabg Published by the STATE HERBARIUM OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA on behalf of the BOARD OF THE BOTANIC GARDENS AND STATE HERBARIUM © Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, Adelaide, South Australia © Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, Government of South Australia All rights reserved State Herbarium of South Australia PO Box 2732 Kent Town SA 5071 Australia © 2014 Board of the Botanic Gardens & State Herbarium (South Australia) Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 28 (2014) 1–219 © 2014 Department of Environment, Water & Natural Resources, Govt of South Australia A taxonomic review of Brachyscome Cass. s.lat. (Asteraceae: Astereae), including descriptions of a new genus, Roebuckia, new species and new infraspecific taxa P.S. Short 5 Chemnitz Court, Driver, Palmerston, Northern Territory 0830, Australia Previously: National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) & Northern Territory Herbarium (DNA) Abstract A brief outline of the problems with the delimitation of the genus, keys to all Australian species and species groups, descriptions of most recognised species, and notes concerning nomenclatural matters of many names are provided. Of the 87 species here recognised as constituing Brachyscome s.lat. in Australia, 17 are new, as are four subspecies: B. abercrombiensis P.S.Short, B. barkerae P.S.Short, B. billabongensis P.S.Short, B. casstiana P.S.Short, B. dalbyen sis P.S.Short, B. foliosa P.S.Short, B. georginensis P.S.Short, B. gilesii P.S.Short, B. gracilis subsp. robusta P.S.Short, B. melanocarpa subsp. thompsonensis P.S.Short, B. microcarpa subsp. darlingensis P.S.Short, B. paludicola P.S.Short, B. rudallensis P.S.Short, B. simulans P.S.Short, B. staceae P.S.Short, B. tamworthensis P.S.Short, B. tasmanica P.S.Short, B. trisecta P.S.Short, B. walshii P.S.Short, B. watanabei P.S.Short and B. whitei subsp. lophoptera P.S.Short. A new genus, Roebuckia P.S.Short, is also described. It contains nine species, five of which are newly described along with some new varieties: R. cheilocarpa (F.Muell.) P.S.Short, R. cheilocarpa var. glabrata P.S.Short, R. cheilocarpa var. integra P.S.Short, R. cheilocarpa var. quobbensis P.S.Short, R. chinnockii P.S.Short, R. ciliocarpa (W.Fitzg.) P.S.Short, R. cuneata P.S.Short, R. halophila (P.S.Short) P.S.Short, R. lathamensis P.S.Short, R. lathamensis var. glabrata P.S.Short, R. lathamensis var. glandulosa P.S.Short, R. nerrenensis P.S.Short, R. oncocarpa (Diels) P.S.Short and R. similis P.S.Short. Lectotypifications are made for the following names: Brachyscome glabra Benth., B. debilis Sond., B. sieberi var. gunnii DC., B. radicata Hook.f., Silphiosperma Steetz and Steiroglossa DC. New lectotypes are chosen for the names Brachyscome angustifolia A.Cunn. ex DC., B. exilis var. scabrida Sond. and Paquerina graminea var. heterophylla Sond. Notes concerning the previously segregated genera Allittia P.S.Short, Hullsia P.S.Short and Pembertonia P.S.Short are incorporated in this review. Pollen:ovule ratios are reported for most species and a comparative table of character states for all species is presented. Keywords: Asteraceae, Astereae, Brachyscome, Roebuckia, review, nomenclature, taxonomy, pollen:ovule ratios, Australia. Introduction When initially conceived, the project was envis I had your Brachycomes all this time … I took them home aged as a major revision of Brachyscome s.lat., one and examined them this morning, but with little results. which would include detailed cladistic analyses of It seems to me the most perplexing genus of the whole morphological and anatomical data and molecular Flora, and none of the keys published is satisfactory; all sequences to resolve the longstanding problems of the characters run into each other, neither the wings of generic circumscription, which I believe exist (e.g. the achenes nor the radical or stem leaves are constant. I Short 1999, 2009), and also go some way in resolving wish Baron v. Mueller would publish a monography of the genus, but, I believe, even he, with his great experience problematic species complexes. At the time I did not and enormous herbarium & material would find great foresee changes in my work environment or appreciate difficulties in settling the boundaries of the species. The the enormity of the project. Thus, there are still nu whole genus seems to be in an unsettled state, that is, in a merous taxonomic problems; there are still species, state of very active variation. both described and undescribed, which are difficult to E. Betche to J.H. Maiden, 8 April 1894, delimit, and the problem of generic circumscription extract from letter attached to NSW 228424 remains. Apart from the spelling of the name (which is now Now, somewhat belatedly, I am bringing my work on generally accepted as being Brachyscome; e.g. Brummitt Brachyscome to a halt. In these notes I summarize some 1993; Flann et al. 2010), Ernst Betche largely summed of the information that has been acquired by others and up the taxonomic difficulty of this genus, then and now. add to it many of my own observations. This includes Published online: 1 Dec. 2014 • flora.sa.gov.au/jabg 1 ISSN 0313-4083 (Print) • ISSN 2201-9855 (Online) P.S. Short J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 28 (2014) Fig. 1. Brachyscome cypselas. A–B Brachyscome aculeata group: A B. aculeata, lateral view (P.S. Short 3996, MEL). B B. riparia, lateral view (L. Hodge, MEL 545069). C–E Brachyscome basaltica group. C B. basaltica, lateral view (A. Rodd 3219, MEL). D B. paludicola, lateral view (holotype, H.I. Aston 2336, MEL). E B. rara, lateral view (isotype of B. coongiensis, J. Reid 1183, BRI). F–I Brachystephium group. F B. casstiana, ray cypsela, lateral view (holotype, C.W.E. Moore 8859, CANB). G B. diversifolia, lateral view (J.S. Whinray 705, MEL). H B. goniocarpa, lateral view (P.S. Short 3322, MEL). I B. gracilis, lateral view (N.H. Scarlett 83-317, MEL). J–M Brachyscome ciliaris group. J B. dalbyensis, lateral view (R. Jones 120, BRI). K B. parvula, lateral view (A.C. Beauglehole 24819, MEL). L B. glandulosa, lateral view (K. Watanabe 165, MEL). M B. perpusilla, lateral view (P.S. Short 3903, MEL). Scale bar: 1 mm. — Illustrated by S. Wickison. 2 J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 28 (2014) Review of Brachyscome s.lat. (Asteraceae) the description of a new genus Roebuckia (within chromosome number determinations of n = 2, 6 and 8 which five new species are described) and 17 new for a species he referred to as Brachyscome lineariloba species referred to Brachyscome s.lat. I also deal with and in subsequent years he and his associates published various nomenclatural matters, including some new two major papers concerning chromosome numbers in lectotypifications. Brachyscome s.lat. (SmithWhite et al. 1970; Carter I had planned to provide thorough descriptions (1978a). The paper by SmithWhite et al. (1970) in and synonymy of all species which are, or have been, particular highlighted serious shortcomings with Davis’ included in Brachyscome s.lat. Indeed, I have provided work. Among other things, they made reference to 14 descriptions for most Australian taxa, although lack of undescribed species and noted the artificiality of at least time has meant that for several species descriptions are some of the species and species groups (“superspecies”) lacking or skeletal. In the case of the B. ciliaris complex she had recognised. This is not particularly surprising it was a deliberate choice to forego a description; on as Davis’s review of the genus was essentially one current knowledge it would incorporate many taxa based on herbarium specimens, many taxa were poorly and be of little use. For this complex I opted to add represented, and many specimens were of poor quality. copious notes on morphological variation and address Despite these impediments she still achieved much. the problem of the application of the names currently However, her work was also partly marred, because of reduced to synonymy under the name B. ciliaris. Apart her strict application of rules in regard to the recognition from a summation of the variation encountered in B. of species and infraspecific taxa. Thus, she recorded: radicata Hook.f. s.lat., I have not provided descriptions As a working hypothesis, variation in the fruits has been for any species from New Guinea and New Zealand, considered a specific character, and has been found to all of which are referred below to the Paquerina group. be discontinuous, the discontinuities representing gaps between species. Constant vegetative variation, on the other However, data recorded for these taxa are incorporated hand, has been given varietal status, the fruits of all varieties in Appendix 2 and notes on the anatomy of cypselas are of any species being identical. reported for several of these taxa. Davis (1948), p. 144 Consideration was given to recognising some As well as having preconceived notions as to what segregate genera in addition to the previously character differences reflected whether a taxon should described genera Allittia P.S.Short, Hullsia P.S.Short be recognised as a distinct species or as a variety, Davis and Pembertonia P.S.Short; these included the B. (1948) also adopted the concept of “superspecies”. dentata group and the B. iberidifolia group along with Quoting zoologist Ernst Mayr, she noted that a reinstatement of the generic names Brachystephium superspecies “consists of a monophyletic group of Less., Steiroglossa DC. and Paquerina Cass. I have no geographically representative (allopatric) species which doubt that the last name, as applied here to the Paquerina are morphologically too distinct to be included in one group, represents a nonmonophyletic grouping, but I species” (Mayr, cited by Davis 1948, p.