Plant Name Changes

Table 2. Some Re-classified Plant Families
Currently accepted names are shown in bold text

1. The plant commonly cultivated as Oreocallis wickhamii was not, in fact, the true O.wickhamii (now known as Alloxylon wickhamii)
2. The Callistemon paludosus/pityoides/sieberi changes are confusing. Apparently research has shown that the plant previously referred to as C.paludosus was attributable to the original description of C.sieberi, thus requiring the reinstatement of the original name. As a result a new name (C.pityoides) has been applied to the plant previously known as C.sieberi.
3. Calytrix sullivanii has been incorporated into the existing species, C.tetragona.
4. In 1995 the genus Corymbia, of 113 species, was created by K.Hill and L.Johnson (Telopea, Volume 6(2-3)). In addition to 33 new species, Hill and Johnson transferred the four Eucalyptus species listed here, plus another 76, to the new genus. More recently, Ian Brooker absorbed both Corymbia and Angophora into Eucalyptus (Australian Systematic Botany 13, 79-148.) but this work does not appear to have gained wide acceptance and most authorities retain Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora as separate genera.
5. Eugenia australis is now regarded as two separate species, Syzygium australe and S.paniculatum.
6. The popular garden plant commonly known as Grevillea biternata is incorrectly named. The correct name is G.curviloba subsp incurva. The true G.biternata is not widely cultivated.
7. Extensive revision of the genus Phebalium by Paul Wilson has seen 21 species transferred to the genus Leionema, 6 species transferred to Nematolepis and 3 species transferred to Rhadinothamnus. 25 species remain in Phebalium.
8. Alex George (well known to many for his work in the revision of Banksia and Dryandra and for his work on the Flora Of Australia project) published a name change for Sturt’s desert pea in the ‘Western Australian Naturalist’ in 1999. He has called the plant Willdampia formosa in honour of the explorer William Dampier. This proposal, however, does not seem to have received general acceptance.
9. Until 1995, all Australian gentians were considered to be included under Gentianella diemensis. They have now been transferred to the genus Chionogentias and split into 14 separate species. The genus Chionogentias also occurs outside of Australia.
10. The species formerly known as Baeckea virgata (now Sannantha virgata) is considered to be restricted to New Caledonia and does not occur in Australia. Australian plants formerly referred to Baeckea virgata have been re-classified to a number of different genera including Sannantha, Kardomia and Harmogia.
11. Several species formerly included in the genus Helichrysum were transferred to the new genus Bracteantha in 1991. However, it has recently (2001) been discovered that the name Xerochrysum, published by a Russian botanist in 1990, must take precedence under the rules of botanical nomenclature. This means that Bracteantha bracteatum and B.subundulata (and several other species) are now reclassified under the genus Xerochrysum.
12. The name Acacia aulacocarpa is still current but has been widely misapplied and a number of forms previously referred to as A.aulacocarpa have now been transferred to other species. The form from coastal and near coastal areas of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales (and the one most commonly referred to as A.aulacocarpa in the past) is now A.disparrima.
13. The name Viola hederacea is still current but research has indicated that the form commonly cultivated is sufficiently distinct from the type form of that species to warrant re-classification.
14. All species in the genus Brachysema have been transferred to the genus Gastrolobium.
15. Dianella laevis is now recognised as D.longifolia in WA, NT, Qld, NSW and the ACT. Victorian populations are regarded as distinct and the name D.laevis is still current in that State.
16. A paper published by A R Mast and K Thiele (The transfer of Dryandra R.Br. to Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae); Australian Systematic Botany, 26 February 2007), proposed that the genus Dryandra be subsumed into Banksia. This revised classification has been accepted by the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria and the new Banksia names now appear on Florabase (the website for the Western Australian Herbarium) and in the Australian Plant Census. The new classification has come in for some criticism but, as the Australian Plant Census has been adopted as the authority on plant names by ANPSA, the revised classifiation has been accepted on the ANPSA website.
17. The reclassification of two species of Astroloma to Stenanthera is accepted in the Australian Plant Census but is not accepted by some other authorities (it is possible that both Stenanthera and Astroloma, together with several other related genera, will be transferred to an expanded Styphelia genus in the future).