Epacris impressa

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Common heath
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Epacris
Species:
E. impressa
Binomial name
Epacris impressa
Labill.[1]
Synonyms[1]
List
    • Epacris campanulata
      Drapiez
    • Epacris campanulata
      nom. nud.
    • Epacris campanulata
      nom. illeg.
    • Epacris campanulata G.Lodd. ex Drapiez var. campanulata
    • Epacris ceraeflora
      orth. var.
    • Epacris ceriflora Graham
    • Epacris impressa f. ceraeflora Siebert & Voss orth. var.
    • Epacris impressa f. ceriflora (Graham) Siebert & Voss
    • Epacris impressa f. grandiflora (
      Benth.
      ) Siebert & Voss
    • Epacris impressa
      Labill.
      f. impressa
    • Epacris impressa f. nivalis Siebert & Voss
    • Epacris impressa f. ruscifolia (
      R.Br.
      ) Siebert & Voss
    • Epacris impressa var. campanulata (DC.)
      Hook.f.
    • Epacris impressa var. ceraeflora Rodway orth. var.
    • Epacris impressa var. ceriflora (Graham) Rodway
    • Epacris impressa var. grandiflora Benth.
    • Epacris impressa Labill. var. impressa
    • Epacris impressa var. nivea (DC.) Hook.f.
    • Epacris impressa var. ovata Benth.
    • Epacris impressa var. ruscifolia Meredith nom. inval., nom. nud.
    • Epacris impressa var. ruscifolia (R.Br.) Rodway
    • Epacris nivalis G.Lodd. ex
      Lindl.
    • Epacris nivalis Lodd., G.Lodd. & W.Lodd. nom. inval., nom. nud.
    • Epacris nivalis Graham nom. illeg.
    • Epacris nivea DC nom. illeg., nom. superfl.
    • Epacris ruscifolia R.Br.
    • Epacris tomentosa Lindl.
    • Epacris variabilis Lodd., G.Lodd. & W.Lodd. ex Courtois
    • Epacris variabilis Lodd., G.Lodd. & W.Lodd.

Epacris impressa, also known as common heath, is a species of plant in the heath family

Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and New South Wales). French botanist Jacques Labillardière collected the species in 1793 and described it in 1805. Four forms have been identified, but no subspecies are recognised. Growing in heathland, shrubland or open forest, it is generally a small shrub around 0.5 to 1 m (1 ft 8 in to 3 ft 3 in) tall, with small stiff leaves. The red, pink or white tube-like flowers appear from late autumn to early spring. Honeyeater birds, particularly the eastern spinebill, feed upon the nectar of the flowers. It regenerates after bushfire by seed or by resprouting
.

A highly regarded garden plant, the common heath was first cultivated in England in 1825; over seventy named

Victoria. Epacris impressa has proven a difficult plant to propagate
reliably, which has limited its use in horticulture and revegetation. It grows best in well-drained but moist soil in a semishaded position.

Description

Epacris impressa grows as a woody shrub with an erect

corolla of the flower is formed by five petals, fused at the base to form a tubelike structure, with the free petal ends forming five lobes at the apex. There are five whorled sepals at the base of the corolla. Within the corolla is a central style that persists through development of the fruit.[4][5] The style connects the stigma at the apex and ovary at the base, where the nectar is also located.[4] Different colour forms are often observed growing near each other.[6] The fruit is a 5-locule capsule that is about 3.5 mm (18 in) in diameter.[5][7][8] It is globular in shape, sometimes with one end flattened.[5] Initially green, it dries and splits, releasing numerous tiny seeds.[5][9][10]

Taxonomy

Erect habit, Belgrave South, Victoria

The

Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.[13]

A number of specimens once described as separate species are now regarded as Epacris impressa, with no recognised subspecies.

Loddiges nursery. He also noted a form with long corollas that had been called E. variabilis that was in cultivation at the time, and noted it was difficult to describe the precise characteristics that distinguished E. ceraeflora, E. nivalis, E. variabilis and E. impressa.[18]

In his landmark Flora Australiensis (1869), George Bentham argued that several previously described species were in fact a single species – E. impressa,[19] uniting E. variabilis, a short red-flowered E. campanulata, E. ruscifolia, which had narrow leaves and long flowers, the white-flowered E. nivalis, and short white-flowered E. ceraeflora. He re-classified as a separate species – E. reclinata – several plants that Allan Cunningham had collected in the Blue Mountains and classified as E. impressa.[19]

In the same work, Bentham named and described two naturally occurring varieties, Epacris impressa var. grandiflora and E. impressa var. ovata.

Mount Imlay in southeastern New South Wales as well as Woolnorth and Rocky Cape in northern Tasmania.[3][21] Bentham noted that, although variable, all forms had "five impressed cavities outside, alternating with the stamens immediately above the ovary."[19]

In his 1972 publication A Handbook to Plants in Victoria, Australian botanist

corollas and coarser and hairier foliage.[20] Currently, both grandiflora and ovata are regarded as synonyms of Epacris impressa rather than being classified as distinct varieties.[3][21] The plant populations that best fit Bentham's original description of grandiflora, also known as Grampians heath, occur naturally on sandstone at locations including Mount Zero, Mount Stapylton and the Black Range.[22][23] Other nearby populations are regarded as having intermediate characteristics, including those in the Victoria Range and Mount Arapiles.[23] Although not recognised in the Australian Plant Census, the variety is noted as "rare" on the list of Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Plants in Victoria issued by the Department of Environment and Primary Industries.[3][24]

Variation in flower colour and length

Forms of E. impressa
white-flowered shrub
White-flowering form, southern Victoria
pink-flowered shrub
Pink-flowering form, Tasmania
red-flowered shrub
Scarlet-flowering form, Wilsons Promontory

In 1977 Helen Stace and Yvonne Fripp from La Trobe University studied 195 populations of Epacris impressa in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and found that 120 consisted of mixed stands of two or more races while 75 populations were of one race only. They identified four races based on the following corolla characteristics:[20]

  • white-flowered with a markedly shortened corolla that is 9–12 mm (3812 in) long and red-purple anthers,[20] usually found in sites with greater sun exposure.[25] Occurring throughout the species range,[20] this form is the most widely distributed.[25]
  • pink-flowered, with a longer corolla that is 12–19 mm (1234 in) long and cream-white anthers, in more shaded sites.[25] This form occurs throughout the species range.[20] Field work in Victoria and Tasmania found that pink-flowered plants in mixed populations often have pink or red anthers.[26]
  • long scarlet race, with orange-red flowers and corolla 15–19 mm (5834 in) long and cream-white anthers. Those from the granitic mountains of Wilsons Promontory and near W Tree in East Gippsland in Victoria flower between April and November. Other localities where this race has been recorded include the Howe Ranges and Clyde Mountain in New South Wales.[20]
  • broad pink or white, the grandiflora race from the Grampians and Mount Arapiles in Victoria. Plants of this race are taller, often reaching 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in height. White or pink colour bear no relation to corolla length. Plants from Mount Arapiles are always pink-flowered.[20]

The long-pink and short-white races frequently occur in close proximity to each other; in these mixed populations the former tends to flower in winter and the latter in spring.[20][25] The question has been raised whether these different forms are becoming incompatible. However, controlled cross-pollination between plants with short and long corollas showed that there was no incompatibility between them.[27]

Pink-flowering populations have a relatively distinct genetic makeup, whereas red or white flowering populations have more evident sharing of genetic traits.[28] Research based on DNA profiling has revealed substantial genetic diversity within and between flower colour races and site populations. This has implications for vegetation projects in that provenance material needs to be collected from a wide geographic area to maintain this diversity.[29]

Distribution

Epacris impressa is commonly found in coastal regions and nearby foothills, ranging from

Clyde River in the Budawang Range.[5][8][10] It is also widespread in Tasmania.[30] Plants are recorded at altitudes up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) at Mount Stradbroke and Mount Tingaringy in East Gippsland.[22] The species grows in widely diverse habitats including sand and clay heathland, herb-rich and heathy woodland, lowland and shrubby dry forests, riparian thickets, montane rocky shrubland and rocky outcrops.[31][32]

Ecology

Eastern spinebill on Epacris impressa, Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens

cross pollination.[33] A study in forests near Hobart in Tasmania found that the eastern spinebill arrived in the area at the same time the common heath was in flower in March, and left once flowering had finished. Other honeyeaters, such as the strong-billed, crescent and yellow-throated honeyeaters, fed occasionally at common heath flowers.[34] Field work in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia recorded the white-plumed and New Holland honeyeaters, as well as the crescent honeyeater and the eastern spinebill.[35]

Insects recorded visiting white-flowered plants include the Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi) and yellow admiral (V. itea), as well as bees.[25] Field work in southern Tasmania showed that the introduced bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) sometimes robbed nectar by piercing the base of the tube. This then allowed honeybees (Apis mellifera) to retrieve nectar the same way.[36] Epacris impressa is host to the scale insect Lecanodiaspis microcribraria.[37]

A field study of the invasion of the pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi into the Brisbane Ranges National Park in Victoria in 1971 indicated that Epacris impressa was moderately susceptible to the pathogen.[38] Inoculation of seedlings confirmed this.[39] Fieldwork in the Brisbane Ranges National Park in 1985 showed that there was some evidence that E. impressa seedlings were able to recolonise areas that had been infested with P. cinnamomi a decade before.[40]

Epacris impressa regenerates after

Otway Ranges in the years following the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires showed that large numbers of E. impressa seedlings appeared in some areas, and that flowering took place as early as the second year after the fire.[41]

The roots of Epacris impressa are colonized by fungi forming ericoid mycorrhiza. It is believed that the fungal species vary between regions.[43]

Cultivation

An illustration from Paxton's Magazine of Botany, published in 1836[44]

Propagated from seed collected by William Baxter in southern Australia, common heath was introduced into cultivation in England by the Clapton Nursery in 1825.[44] Due to its frost-tenderness, it was mostly restricted to greenhouse cultivation.[10] In 1873, a variety known as Epacris impressa alba was recorded as being grown commercially for cut flowers in Boston in the United States.[45] While initially popular – over seventy cultivars appeared in the literature at the time – most have since disappeared.[46]

Plants grow best in a moist but well-drained, acidic soil,[10] with added peat being helpful.[47] They may be grown in coastal gardens in a sheltered position,[48] and generally require some degree of shade. Once established, plants can tolerate short dry spells.[46] As they age, plants may become straggly, but benefit from hard pruning after fertilizing and watering, which promotes compact, bushier growth. Common heath can be short-lived and difficult to transplant,[47] though it can be readily grown as a pot plant.[46] Along with other members of the genus, Epacris impressa initially proved difficult to grow and maintain on original soil in the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra.[49]

Propagation both by seed and cuttings is difficult, reducing potential production by plant nurseries. Germination rates of soil-stored seeds have been found to increase substantially with the application of heat and aqueous solutions of smoke.[50] The most satisfactory results from cuttings can be achieved by using tip growth, taken six weeks after the cessation of flowering, and kept under a fogging system for twenty weeks.[28] Plantsman Neil Marriott recommends semi-hardened cutting material taken in spring and autumn.[47] Roots of cuttings are brittle and easily damaged.[47]

Cultivars

The following forms have been selected and grown for cultivation:

'Bega'

This is a form from Bega in southern New South Wales that has bright red flowers and grows to 60 cm (2.0 ft) high. It is regarded as one of the more reliable forms in cultivation.[12][51] White- and pink-flowered forms from the same region also have horticultural potential.[52]

'Cranbourne Bells' and other double-flowered forms
Double-flowered pink form

'Cranbourne Bells' is a

Nunawading, today a suburb of Melbourne.[58] Charles French, co-founder of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, collected a white double-flowered form from Cheltenham south of Melbourne in 1859 and a pink double-flowered form from Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula in about 1862. These were later sent as rooted cuttings to Veitch Nurseries in England.[59] Double-flowered forms of various colours have since been found throughout Victoria, but only single plants have been observed in any location, and they are still regarded as a rarity.[60] A naturally occurring form of the variety grandiflora with rosebud-like double flowers is also grown.[46][51]

'Spring Pink'

A form with deep pink flowers on long spikes, 'Spring Pink' appears in spring. It grows to 60 cm (2.0 ft) high.[51]

Floral emblem of Victoria

In 1951, at a meeting of representatives of government and other bodies, it was agreed that the pink form of the common heath, the "pink heath", be adopted as the official

floral emblem for the state of Victoria.[10] Victoria was the first Australian state to adopt a floral emblem.[10] The proclamation, made on 11 November 1958 by the Governor, Dallas Brooks
, was as follows:

I, the Governor of the State of Victoria, in the Commonwealth of Australia, by and with the advice of the Executive Council of the said State, do by this my Proclamation declare that the Pink Form of the Common Heath, Epacris impressa Labill., be adopted as the Floral Emblem for the State of Victoria"[61]

An Australian stamp series of

armorial bearings for Victoria.[65]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Mitchell here makes a comparison to Epacris grandiflora Willd., a synonym of Epacris longiflora, not to be confused with Epacris impressa var. grandiflora Benth.

References

  1. ^ a b "Epacris impressa". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  2. .
  3. ^ a b c d "Epacris impressa var. grandiflora Benth". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  4. ^ a b Bailey, Peter (1988). "The Flower – Part 3". Australian Plants. 14 (115): 295–96.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Epacris impressa". eflorasa. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  6. ^ Wild Plants of Victoria (database). Viridans Biological Databases & Department of Sustainability and Environment. 2009.
  7. ^ "Epacris". Flora of Victoria Knowledge Base. Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  8. ^ a b "Epacris impressa". PlantNET – New South Wales Flora Online. Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney Australia. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  9. ^ Elliot, Gwen. "Growing Epacris from seed". Australian Native Plants Society (Australia). Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Boden, Anne. "Common Heath". Floral Emblems of Australia. Australian National Botanic Gardens and Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  11. ^ a b "Epacris impressa Labill". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  12. ^ a b "Epacris impressa". Australian Native Plants Society (Australia). Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  13. ^ "Floral Emblem Epacris impressa". Gardening Australia. ABC. Archived from the original on 2008-06-29. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  14. . London, United Kingdom: Richard Taylor and Company. pp. 406–08.
  15. ^ "Epacris ruscifolia R.Br". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  16. ^ Lindley, John (1839). Mitchell, Thomas L. (ed.). Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia. Vol. 2. T. & W. Boone. p. 177.
  17. ^ Graham, Robert (1832). "Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants". Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 13: 167–73 [168].
  18. ^ Graham, Robert (1833). "Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants". Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 15: 181–84 [183].
  19. ^ a b c Bentham, George (1869). "Epacris impressa". Flora Australiensis . Vol. 4: Stylidiaeeae to Pedalineae. London, United Kingdom: L. Reeve & Co. p. 235.
  20. ^ .
  21. ^ a b "Epacris impressa var. ovata Benth". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  22. ^ .
  23. ^ a b "Epacris impressa". Flora of Victoria Knowledge Base. Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Archived from the original on 2014-06-06. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  24. ^ "Threatened species advisory lists". Department of Environment and Primary Industries. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  25. ^ .
  26. .
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  28. ^ a b Conomikes, Melanie (February 2008). Epacris impressa Labil: Inoculation of cuttings with ericoid mycorrhizal fungus and DNA fingerprinting of floral races – Final Report to the Australian Flora Foundation (PDF) (Report). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  29. S2CID 251006909
    . Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  30. ^ "Epacris impressa". Key to Tasmanian Vascular Plants. University of Tasmania. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  31. ^ "EVC Benchmarks – East Gippsland Uplands". Department of Environment and Primary Industries. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
  32. ^ "Wilsons Promontory biogregion" (PDF). EVC Bioregion Benchmark for Vegetation Quality Assessment. Department of Sustainability and Environment. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  33. ^ "Common (or Pink) Heath". Fact Files. Parks Victoria. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011.
  34. .
  35. .
  36. .
  37. .
  38. .
  39. .
  40. .
  41. ^ a b Wark, Margaret C.; White, Mary D.; Robertson, David J.; Marriott, Philip F. (1987). "Regeneration of Heath and Heath Woodland in the North-eastern Otway Ranges following the Wildfire of February 1983". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 99 (2): 51–88. Retrieved 7 Aug 2014.
  42. ^ Molnar, Cathy D.; Fletcher, Daintree; Parsons, Robert F. (1989). "Relationships between heath and Leptospermum laevigatum scrub at Sandringham, Victoria". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 101: 77–87. Retrieved 7 Aug 2014.
  43. .
  44. ^ a b Joseph Paxton (1836). Paxton's Magazine of Botany, and Register of Flowering Plants. Vol. 1. Orr and Smith. p. 97.
  45. ^ Harding, W.T. (1873). "Observations and Recollections of New Holland". The Gardener's Monthly and Horticultural Advertiser. 15. Charles Marot: 173–175.
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  47. ^ a b c d Marriott, Neil (1988). "Epacris impressa". Australian Plants. 14 (115): 293.
  48. .
  49. ^ Butler, Geoff (1984). "National Botanic Gardens Rockery". Australian Plants. 12 (99): 315–19.
  50. .
  51. ^ .
  52. ^ Walters, Brian (1988). "East Coastal #7: Epacris". Australian Plants. 14 (115): 294.
  53. ^ a b "Epacris 'Cranbourne Bells'". Descriptions of Registered Cultivars. Australian Cultivar Registration Authority. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  54. .
  55. ^ Masters, Maxwell T. (1865). "Epacris impressa flore pleno". Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. 3. Harwicke: 193.
  56. ^ Seeman, Berthold (1865). "Epacris impressa Labill. fl. pleno". Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. 3. Harwicke: 157.
  57. ^ Hemsley, William (1917). "Double-flowered Epacrises". Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. 55. Harwicke: 161.
  58. ^ Mueller, Ferdinand (1872–74). "Epacridaceae". Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. 8: 51–56.
  59. ^ French, Charles (24 September 1877). "Double Wild Flowers". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. p. 7. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  60. ^ Clifford, H.T. (December 1949). "Notes on the Common Heath (Epacris impressa)". The Victorian Naturalist. 66 (9): 143–46.
  61. ^ Brooks, Dallas (12 November 1958). "Floral Emblem for the State of Victoria". Victoria Government Gazette (98): 3572. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  62. ^ "Epacris impressa". Australian Plants on Postage Stamps. Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  63. ^ "Epacris impressa". Australian Plants on Postage Stamps. Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  64. ^ Silkstone, Dan (1 August 2005). "Scientist warns on state emblem lost to freeway". The Age. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  65. ^ "Parliament of Victoria Crest". Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 1 June 2014.

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