Zieria

Zieria is a genus of plants in the family, Rutaceae. About sixty species have been formally described, all of which are endemic to Australia except for one species which is found in New Caledonia. They occur in all Australian states except Western Australia but the genus is under review and a number of species are yet to be described or the description published. Zierias are similar to the better known genus Boronia but can be distinguished by the number of stamens in the flowers. The name Zieria honours the Polish botanist John Zier.

Zieria
Zieria prostrata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Zieria
Sm.[1]
Zieria involucrata in Yengo National Park
Zieria compacta growing in a nature reserve near Bolivia

Description

Plants in the genus Zieria are shrubs or small trees. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs and are usually compound with three leaflets similar in shape but the middle leaflet slightly larger. The flowers are arranged in groups in the leaf axils and have four fused sepals and four petals alternating with the sepals. There are four stamens (eight in Boronia) and four carpels with their styles fused. The fruit have four lobes, each containing one or two seeds.[2][3][4]

Taxonomy and naming

The genus Zieria was first formally described in 1798 by James Edward Smith and the description was published in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.[1][5] Smith did not nominate a type species but James Armstrong nominated Zieria smithii as the lectotype.[6] The name Zieria honours "John Zier, a Polish botanist, who assisted F.C. Ehrhart in his collection of plants of the Electorate of Hanover, 1780-83, and afterwards worked in London, where he died in 1793."[7][8]

In a 2002 study of the genus, James Armstrong placed each species into one of six groups, based on its morphology. The groups are:

  • Group A: Z. adenodonta, Z. adenophora, Z. buxijugum, Z. collina, Z. floydii, Z. formosa, Z. furfuracea, Z. granulata, Z. hindii, Z. obcordata, Z. parrisiae, Z. robusta, Z. tuberculata, Z. verrucosa;
  • Group B: Z. arborescens, Z. caducibracteata, Z. lasiocaulis, Z. oreocena, Z. southwellii;
  • Group C: Z. chevalieri, Z. fraseri, Z. laevigata, Z. laxiflora;
  • Group D: Z. montana, Z. prostrata, Z. robertsiorum, Z. smithii;
  • Group E: Z. aspalathoides, Z. citriodora, Z. ingramii, Z. minutiflora, Z. obovata, Z. odorifera, Z. pilosa, Z. rimulosa;
  • Group F: Z. baeuerlenii, Z. covenyi, Z. cytisoides, Z. involucrata, Z. littoralis, Z. murphyi, Z. veronicea.[9]

In a 2015 study, using a combination of two non-coding chloroplast DNA regions, Internal transcribed spacer and some morphological characters, Cynthia Morton concluded that the genus as presently described is monophyletic. A tentative arrangement of 32 of Armstrong's 42 species was also suggested:

  • Group 1: Z. adenodonta, Z. baeuerlenii, Z. collina, Z. cytisoides;
  • Group 2: Z. buxijugum, Z. caducibracteata, Z. formosa, Z. granulata, Z. littoralis, Z. parrisiae, Z. tuberculata, Z. verrucosa;
  • Group 3: Z. fraseri, Z. odorifera;
  • Group 4: Z. prostrata, Z. smithii;
  • Group 5: Z. aspalathoides, Z. ingramii;
  • Group 6: Z. adenophora, Z. furfuracea, Z. laxiflora;
  • Group 7: Z. montana, Z. southwellii;
  • Group 8: Z. covenyi, Z. murphyi, Z. odorifera, Z. robusta.

Zieria citriodora, Z. arborescens, Z. minutiflora, Z. obcordata and Z. pilosa were not able to be resolved in this study.[10]

Distribution

Plants in the genus Zieria are endemic to Australia, except for Zieria chevalieri, which is found in New Caledonia. Zierias occur in all Australian states except Western Australia.[2]

Species list

The species described to date (October 2017) and listed by the Australian Plant Census are:[11]

Conservation

Zieria parrisiae is listed as "critically endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A further eleven are listed as "endangered" and eight as "vulnerable".[12]

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References
  1. "Zieria". APNI. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  2. Armstrong, James Andrew; Harden, Gwen. "Genus Zieria". Royal Botanic Garden Sydney: plantnet. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. Carolin, Roger C.; Tindale, Mary D. (1994). Flora of the Sydney region (4th ed.). Chatswood, NSW: Reed. p. 435. ISBN 0730104001.
  4. "The Boronia Family - Background". Australian Native Plants Society Australia. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  5. Smith, James Edward (1798). "The Characters of Twenty New Genera of Plants". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 4: 216. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  6. "Zieria Sm". APNI. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  7. "Zieria Sm". APNI. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  8. Will of John Ziers. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858. Ancestry.com
  9. Armstrong, Jim A. (2002). "The genus Zieria (Rutaceae): a systematic and evolutionary study". Australian Systematic Botany. 15 (3): 277–463. doi:10.1071/SB00040.
  10. Morton, Cynthia M. (2015-01-13). "Phylogenetic relationships of Zieria (Rutaceae) inferred from chloroplast, nuclear, and morphological data". PhytoKeys (44): 15–38. doi:10.3897/phytokeys.44.8393. PMC 4329389. PMID 25698892.
  11. "Australian Plant Census - Zieria". Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  12. "Species profile and threats database - Zieria". Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  • Duretto, M. F.; Forster, P. I. (2007). "A taxonomic revision of the genus Zieria Sm. (Rutaceae) in Queensland". Austrobaileya. 7 (3): 472–544.
  • Media related to Zieria at Wikimedia Commons
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