Lechenaultia

Plants in the genus Lechenaultia are glabrous shrubs or herbs with spreading branches, linear or cylindrical leaves, the leaves sometimes reduced to scales. The flowers are more or less sessile with five sepals that are free from each other, and five glabrous blue, white or yellow and red petals. The petals are glabrous, the two at the back of the flower shorter with narrow wings near the tip, and the lower three longer with broad wings. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule with four valves.[2][3][4]

The genus Lechenaultia was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.[5][6] The genus name honours Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, the botanist attached to the Baudin expedition to Australia.[7] Brown had met Leschenault and assumed to spell his name the French way without the 's', however, George Bentham introduced the German spelling with the 's' and subsequent writers followed suit as the name was written Leschenaultia, but reverted to Robert Brown's spelling in the 1950s.[8]

The type species is Lechenaultia formosa.[8]

The majority of Lechenaultia species occur in the south-west of Western Australia and most of these occur in shrubland. Lechenaultia biloba grows in forests, and inland species occur in open grassland or woodland. All species grow in well-drained, sandy soil, apart from L. expansa that grows in permanently wet soil.[9]

Charles Darwin studied fertilisation in Lechenaultia and suggested that the upper anther "has been converted into a short broad strap" preventing the stigma from receiving pollen from the fertile anthers of the same flower, thus preventing self-fertilisation.[10]

The following is a list of Lechenaultia species accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at January 2022:[11]

Lechenaultia acutiloba Benth. – wingless leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia aphylla D.A.Morrison (W.A., S.A.)

Lechenaultia biloba Lindl. – blue leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia brevifolia D.A.Morrison (W.A.)

Lechenaultia chlorantha F.Muell. – Kalbarri leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia divaricata F.Muell. (N.T., S.A., Qld., N.S.W.)

Lechenaultia expansa R.Br. (W.A.)

Lechenaultia filiformis R.Br. (W.A., N.T., Qld., New Guinea)

Lechenaultia floribunda Benth. – free-flowering leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia formosa R.Br. – red leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia galactites L.W.Sage – white leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia heteromera Benth. – claw leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia hirsuta F.Muell. – hairy leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia hortii L.W.Sage – Hort's leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia juncea E.Pritz. – reed-like leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia laricina Lindl. – scarlet leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia linarioides DC. – yellow leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia longiloba F.Muell. – Irwin leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia lutescens D.A.Morrison & Carolin (W.A., N.T.)

Lechenaultia macrantha K.Krause – wreath leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia magnifica L.W.Sage – magnificent leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia mimica M.D.Barrett & R.L.Barrett (W.A.)

Lechenaultia ovata D.A.Morrison (N.T.)

Lechenaultia papillata D.A.Morrison (W.A.)

Lechenaultia pulvinaris C.A.Gardner – cushion leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia stenosepala E.Pritz. – narrow-sepaled leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia striata F.Muell. (W.A., N.T., S.A.)

Lechenaultia subcymosa C.A.Gardner & A.S.George – wide-branching leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia superba F.Muell. – Barrens leschenaultia (W.A.)

Lechenaultia tubiflora R.Br. – heath leschenaultia (W.A.)

In 2021, Russell Lindsay Barrett and Richard W. Jobson described L. peregrina, a new species from northern Australia, New Guinea and the Moluccas, but as of January 2022, the name has not yet been accepted by the Australian Plant Census.[12]