Dianella revoluta

Dianella revoluta, the blueberry lily is a perennial herb of Australia.

Dianella revoluta
flowers, near the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asphodelaceae
Subfamily: Hemerocallidoideae
Genus: Dianella
Species:
D. revoluta
Binomial name
Dianella revoluta
R. Brown

Taxonomy

It was first described in 1810 by Robert Brown. Commonly known as the black-anther flax-lily, blueberry flax-lily or spreading flax-lily,[1]

Placed with the genus Dianella of the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae,[2] found across Australia and Tasmania.[3] so allied to twenty to forty other species.[4]

Revisions of Dianella revoluta have produced new taxonomic descriptions, as with species Dianella admixta. Several varieties have been described, those named in Western Australia are[5]

  • Dianella revoluta var. divaricata (R.Br.) R.J.F.Hend, flax lily.[6]
  • Dianella revoluta var. revoluta (Dianella revoluta R.Br. var. revoluta). The flowers are blue-violet.[7]
  • Dianella revoluta var. brevicaulis was later named as Dianella brevicaulis (Ostenf.) G.W.Carr & P.F.Horsfall [8]

Description

Dianella revoluta flowers in spring with a star-like purple flower which develops into a blue to purple berry.[9] The berry fruit is reported to be edible.[10]

Cultural use

Dianella, Western Australia was named after this plant, which was plentiful in the area prior to the 1960s residential development.[11]

References
  1. "Dianella revoluta". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  2. Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards), "Hemerocallidoideae", Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, retrieved 2016-06-10
  3. H. Trevor Clifford, Rodney J.F. Henderson, and John G. Conran. 1998. "Hemerocallidaceae" pages 245-253. In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor). 1998. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume III. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany. ISBN 978-3-540-64060-8
  4. Search for "Dianella", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 4 September 2014
  5. "Search "Dianella"". FloraBase.
  6. "Dianella revoluta". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.The flowers are blue-purple
  7. "Dianella revoluta". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  8. "Dianella revoluta". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  9. Anthony Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (1992). The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. The Macmillan Press, Limited: London. The Stockton Press: New York. ISBN 978-0-333-47494-5 (set).
  10. Wild food plants of Australia, Tim Low
  11. "Perth suburb names". Landgate. Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 17 October 2017.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.