Kingia australis

Kingia australis
K. australis, Fernhook Falls, Australia
Conservation status
Taxonomy
Kingdom	Plantae
(unranked)	Angiosperms
(unranked)	Monocots
(unranked)	Commelinids
Order	(unplaced)
Family	Dasypogonaceae
Genus	Kingia
Species	K. australis
Naming and discovery
Botanist	R.Br.

Kingia australis (black gin or bullanock^{See names}) is a species of flowering plant in the Dasypogonaceae family. It is endemic to the the southern half of Western Australia.

Description

It is a small tree-like perennial plant growing from thick rhizomes underground, reaching heights up to 25 ft (8 m), though the older black gins are usually taller. It has a pseudo-trunk that is covered with leaf bases, and has a cluster of long, slender leaves at its top. It is usually unbranched, but can branch if its growing tip is damaged. The bark is grayish or blackish in color.

The leaves are alternate and long, resembling that of grass in appearance. They are colored blue to blue-green and have a silky, silvery sheen.

The yellowish flowers occur in egg-shaped clusters on ends of 100 long, curved stems. When the flowers mature into a fruit, they produce a capsule containing only one seed.

The black gin grows very slowly, only increasing in height by 1½ centimeters a year. It can live for centuries, however, so can obtain a substantial height; 400 year old plants can reach a height of 6 m.

Names

When not flowering, Kingia australis is very similar in appearance to the appearance of the Xanthorrhoea. This brought rise to the common name, "blackboy" (in which both share), because of their purported similarity to an Aboriginal boy holding an upright spear. However, the flower stocks of Kingia australis are very different than those of the Xanthorrhoea. Because of this contrast, Kingia australis was thought to have been a female form of the blackboy and was commonly known as the black gin. This remains the most widely known common name of Kingia australis, though some now consider the name inappropriate or at least belonging to the past. Kingia and the Aboriginal name, bullanock are now preferred.

Though Kingia australis and Xanthorrhoea are sometimes mistaken as each other, they are biologically distinct, and not closely related. For example, Xanthorrhoea have a secondary thickening meristem in the trunk, while Kingia australis lacks this feature.

Taxonomic history

View of the south side of King George's Sound by William Westall is the earliest known image of Kingia australis

Kingia Australis, by Phillip Parker King, 1827

Specimens of Kingia australis were first collected by Robert Brown in 1801 at King George Sound. It was featured on the drawing by expedition artist, William Westall, View of the south side of King George's Sound, which was later published to Matthew Flinders' A Voyage to Terra Australis; this is the earliest known image of the plant. A Voyage to Terra Australis also contained the first textual reference to the species, in which Brown writes:

"A plant of a very similar habitat to Xanthorrhoea, agreeing with it in its caudex and leaves, having, however, a very different inflorescence, was observed abundantly at King George's Sound, but with fructification so decayed and imperfect that I have not been able to determine the structure either of its flower or fruit."

Due to the state of decay of the fruit, Brown initially didn't publish a name for the species. In 1823, however, William Baxter collected a ripe fruit and seeds, which he passed to Brown. Based on these specimens, Brown published it alone in the Kingia genus in his publication, Character and description of Kingia, which appeared as the appendix to Phillip Parker King's 1827 Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia performed between the years 1818 and 1822. He named the genus in honor of himself and his father, Philip Gidley King who was the Governor of New South Wales during Brown's voyage. The species epithet, australis is Latin for "southern".

Sources

• Kingia australis on Wikipedia
• Trees, pg. 124