Persoonia laurina

Persoonia laurina was one of five species described by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in his 1805 work Synopsis Plantarum,[2] from material collected by John White in 1793 and 1794.[3] The species name refers to a resemblance to Laurus "laurel".[4] James Edward Smith described this species as the rusty persoonia (Persoonia ferruginea) in his 1805 book Exotic Botany.[5] The horticulturist Joseph Knight used Smith's name in his controversial 1809 work On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae,[6] as did Robert Brown in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. Brown also recognised that the two names were the same species.[7]

In 1870, George Bentham published the first infrageneric arrangement of Persoonia in Volume 5 of his landmark Flora Australiensis. He divided the genus into three sections, placing P. ferruginea in P. sect. Amblyanthera.[8]

Within the genus, P. laurina is classified in the Laurina group, a group of three species from southeastern Australia that all have a lignotuber.[9]

Three subspecies are recognised.[10] First recorded as distinct in 1981, they were officially described as subspecies in 1991 by Lawrie Johnson and Peter Weston of the New South Wales Herbarium.[11]

Subspecies leiogyna with fruit, near Kowmung River

Persoonia laurina grows as a shrub with an upright or sprawling habit reaching anywhere from 0.2 to 2 metres (7 ³⁄₄ in to 6 ft 6 ³⁄₄ in) tall. New growth is covered with dense grey to rusty-brown hairs. Flowering takes place over November to January.[3] Seedlings have only two cotyledon leaves, unlike many members of the genus, which have more.[9]

All three subspecies resprout after bushfire from a woody lignotuber. Subspecies laurina is estimated to have a lifespan of 50 to 100 years.[12]

The bark was traditionally used by Aboriginal people to soak fishing lines and toughen them.[4] Drupes were eaten by indigenous people on the Beecroft Peninsula, though were not as highly regarded as those of P. lanceolata.[13]

P. laurina is an attractive plant with horticultural potential. Cultivating it would most likely require good water drainage, a position in sun or dappled shade and acidic soil. It is hardy to frosts.[14] However, it appears to be short-lived in cultivation, with plants at the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens surviving for a maximum of six years after planting out.[9] While difficult to propagate by seed,[4] it has been easier to propagate by cuttings of new growth.[9]