Xerochrysum cleanup
On iNat, there are over 3000 Australian observations of Xerochrysum across 11 species. The majority of these are X. viscosum (>1500) and X. bracteatum (>800). However, Collins et al. (https://www.publish.csiro.au/SB/SB21014) recently published a comprehensive review of the genus, and there are some big changes. A number of new species have been described, some old species collapsed into others, and, perhaps most significantly, the circumscription of X. bracteatum has significantly narrowed. Xerochrysum bracteatum sensu strictu is now considered to only occur in "south-eastern New South Wales and far-eastern Victoria in the Sydney Basin, South East Corner, and South East Coastal Plain bioregions" (not accounting for garden escapees elsewhere given its commonness in horticulture), greatly reducing its previous distribution. This means there are now a lot of misidentified records on iNat. I'm intending to go through all records and make corrections where I can.
There are now 24 described species:
X. milliganii
X. collierianum
X. alpinum
X. palustre
X. andrewiae
X. subundulatum
X. banksii
X. viscosum
X. boreale
X. neoanglicum
X. macsweeneyorum
X. frutescens
X. copelandii
X. berarngutta
X. murapan
X. strictum
X. gudang
X. macranthum
X. papillosum
X. hispidum
X. interiore
X. bicolor
X. wilsonii
X. bracteatum
There are a further 4 yet to be formally described phrase name species:
X. sp. Chinchilla
X. sp. Blackfellows Gap
X. sp. North Stradbroke Island (L. Durrington 675) Qld Herbarium
X. sp. Tin Can Bay
2 entities are no longer valid:
X. halmaturorum --> now synonymised under X. bicolor
X. sp. Lofty Ranges --> now synonymised under X. bicolor
Tagging top observers and IDers of Xerochrysum for reference + to give heads up about impending notifications
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Comments
Good luck mate, at least you'll know the group well by the end!
If you tag me in a few and explain some differences, I'll try to assist a bit
Nice one, i'll help out with Victoria where I can
Awesome stuff, looking forward to it!
The Vic RBG herbarium don't currently accept the taxonomy proposed by Collins et al. in that paper due to inconsistencies between the proposed new species, and actual herbarium specimens from the area (see notes under X.bracteatum description https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/c637faf1-7dae-4377-9f57-1ebd76c0c5e4). I am inclined to stick with what the Vic RBG herbarium accept because there is obviously more work to do to resolve species in the X.bracteatum group in Vic. Otherwise we can just try our best to fit things into the current Collins et al 2022 taxonomy and watch out for things that don't fit the descriptions if we can. Anyone else from Vic have thoughts on this?
Thanks Nina. I'm happy to leave Victoria alone for now in that case. So far I've done the obvious/easy/non-contentious ones:
Arid central Australia = interiore
Cairns to Mackay = strictum
tip of Cape York = gudang
Perth and northwards = macranthum
I'm now about to look at the southern WA ones
X. wilsonii ticked off now as well around the Stirling Range/Albany/Porongorup area
found an X. berarngutta at the type location: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67131742
I will try and look at these in a couple of week's time. I am travelling in Laos at the moment. I have quite a few m yself which will need looking at in any cae
Good luck with this Thomas! I'm very happy to note that I will not be affected since I only ID X. bracteatum from SE NSW and East Gippsland area, and it remains unchanged there. Phew - bullet dodged.
Jackie
ah good, my viscosum obs are not affected :) Only two of my observations are not viscosum. one of those is subunulatum and the other I wasn't able to determine, from the black soils just off the Pillaga. I think you have already done all of my viscosum
Hi Thomas, I don't have access to the paper so could you please explain any changes to X. viscosum. All my observations and most identifications are limited to that species. I also agree with @ninakerr01 re Victoria but would be interested in @mftasp's position re southern Australia.
viscosum seems to be largely unchanged, aside from absorbing the undescribed entity X. sp. Mount Kaputar. Still has a broad distribution from SE QLD into Vic
Would that have been the X.sp I found East of Pillaga?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/100552247
very different habit to viscosum
I'd have to check, but probably not, 150km distance between the two
Thanks Thomas. I've checked all my IDs only two not viscosum (still at genus level). All of these observations from Geehi NSW should be subundulatum?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=-36.242906194644&nelng=148.4057771618773&place_id=any&swlat=-36.45447825177247&swlng=148.0819581841092&taxon_id=147468
I'll get onto them soon, doing all the low hanging fruit at the moment
I've tried to fix all mine, but am still not sure with some. I have one that I think is X. hispidum but which is not yet in POWO or iNaturalist.
just providing another update here plus recapping a few things I said above
I have added IDs to all of the arid interior Xerochrysum observations, which are all X. interiore (species described prior to this new paper) and easily identified
Perth and surrounds are X. macranthum. I've added IDs to 2 out of the 4, but am unsure on the other two (whether Xerochrysum or different genus)
The southern WA cluster all fall under either X. macranthum or X. wilsonii. I've added IDs where I can, but there are some at the interface zone I'm unsure about
The two Cape York observations are both X. gudang
Anything around Cairns to Townsville is X. strictum, have added IDs to those
Coastal headland/beach observations stretching from SE Queensland down to about Diamond Head are an undescribed entity that could be Xerochrysum, or could be Helichrysum, but needs further investigation. I've added coarse/downgrading IDs to all of them.
Aside from a few other individual cases, I have pretty much left all of southeast Australia alone. This is where the large bulk of many sympatric species are, and as Nina noted above, there are still some questions surrounding what is and isn't X. bracteatum in some areas such as Victoria.
So for now, I will hold off on making IDs in any areas that are not obviously assignable to a distinct species, and hopefully we get some more clarity on these entities in the near future
Well done - not always the easiest to identify from images.
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