Carpobrotus virescens

Carpobrotus virescens, commonly known as coastal pigface,[1] is a prostrate coastal succulent shrub of the family Aizoaceae native to Western Australia. The Noongar peoples know the plant as Kolbogo or Metjarak.[2]

Carpobrotus virescens
Carpobrotus virescens on Rottnest Island
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Aizoaceae
Genus: Carpobrotus
Species:
C. virescens
Binomial name
Carpobrotus virescens

Description

It is a prostrate plant with stems up to 1.5 metres (5 ft) long. Its leaves are green, from 3.5 to 9 centimetres (1½-3½ in) long, and 9 to 17 millimetres wide. Flowers are from four to six centimetres in diameter, on a pedicel five to 15 millimetres long. They are composed of 250 to 300 stamens, surrounded by petal-like staminodes that are mostly purple, but white at the base.[3]

Taxonomy

It was first published in 1812 by Adrian Hardy Haworth, who gave it the name Mesembryanthemum virescens.[4] Fourteen years later, Haworth published M. abbreviatum; no specimen was given for this name, and a figure on which the name was based is now lost, but on the basis of an 1848 figure this name has been synonymized with C. virescens.[5] Neotypes were designated for both names by Stanley Thatcher Blake in 1969. The neotype of M. abbreviatum is an illustration from Joseph Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck's Monogr. Aloes et Mesembryanthemi, while that of M. virescens is a specimen of Blake's (Blake 20910; BRI.080355–6) from the Queensland Herbarium. In 1914 the species was demoted to a variety of M. edule (now C. edulis) by Charles Edward Moss, but this was not accepted, and in 1928 Martin Heinrich Gustav Schwantes transferred the species into Carpobrotus as C. virescens.[6]

Distribution and habitat

Endemic to Western Australia, C. virescens occurs on coastal limestone cliffs and dunes from the western edge of the Great Australian Bight, west and north almost to Shark Bay. There is also an outlying collection from North West Cape.[1]

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References
  1. "Carpobrotus virescens (Haw.) Schwantes". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  2. "Noongar names for plants". kippleonline.net. Archived from the original on 2016-11-20. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  3. Prescott, A.; Venning, J. (1984). "Aizoaceae". Flora of Australia, Volume 4: Phytolaccaceae to Chenopodiaceae. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
  4. "Mesembryanthemum virescens Haw". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  5. "Mesembryanthemum abbreviatum Haw". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
  6. "Carpobrotus virescens (Haw.) Schwantes". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
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