Species profile—Trioncinia patens
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Asteraceae (sunflower) → Trioncinia patens
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Asteraceae (sunflower)
- Scientific name
- Trioncinia patens A.E.Holland & D.W.Butler
- WildNet taxon ID
- 31728
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- CR
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- Status annotated by author (Holland)
- Description
- Trioncinia patens (Peaks Downs Daisy) is a perennial herb with a thick taproot, and several stems arising from the caudex. All parts of the plant are glabrous. The stems are erect, growing to 50 cm high, and are branched mainly in the upper half. The leaves are mostly basal, alternate, 3 to 7 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm wide. The stem leaves are smaller than the basal ones. The petioles are up to 4 cm long. The lamina is pinnatifid, sometimes further divided, up to 3 cm long and 2 cm wide. Leaf segments are narrow, 1 to 1.5 mm wide, apiculate at apex, with one nerve. The inflorescences are branched in the upper half of the plant. The peduncles are 4 to 12 cm long, often with 1 or 2 bracts in the upper half. There are 5 ray florets which are yellow, bilobed and female. There are 11 to 17 disc florets, which are hermaphrodite. The cypselas are terete, slightly wider in the middle, slightly curved inwards at the apex, 7 to 7 mm long by 0.7 to 1.0 mm diameter. The surface of the cypsela is glabrous, lacking longitudinal ribs, with thin transverse ridges, and is smooth between the ridges. There are four awns on the cypsela, all usually equal in length, 1 to 2 mm long, and orange-brown in colour (Holland and Butler, 2007).
Trioncinia patens superficially resembles T. retroflexa, but is generally a smaller plant, with smaller ray florets, cypselas and leaves. T. patens can be most readily be distinguished by the four spreading awns of the cypsela. T. retroflexa usually has three awns, with a rare small forth one, and these are always reflexed when mature. The two Trioncinia species differ considerably in their habitat, with T. retroflexa occurring mainly in grasslands on rolling plains of heavy black clay, whereas T. patens occurs mainly in eucalypt woodland on the lower slopes of basalt of trachyte hills where soils are considerably lighter in colour and texture (Holland and Butler 2007). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Trioncinia patens is known from only three locations, all on the toe-slopes of peaks in and near the Peak Range National Park between Claremont and Dysart in central Queensland (Holland and Butler, 2007; Queensland Herbarium, 2011). The northernmost population occurs in Peak Range National Park and consists of only six individuals; the southernmost population at the base of Eastern Peak (also in Peak Range National Park) has more than 100 individuals; the nearby population at the base of Browns peak is not conserved and consists of less than 100 individuals (Holland and Butler, 2007; Queensland Herbarium , 2011).
- Distributional limits
- -22.4656573, 147.8759748
-22.7547428, 148.1338774 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's confirmed records
- Habitat
- Trioncinia patens occurs in eucalypt woodland (Eucalyptus orgadophila, E. crebra, E. melanophloia and Corymbia erythrophloia), on basalt-derived dark-grey to red-brown clays or clay-loams, often with some surface gravel (Holland and Butler 2007; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Reproduction
- Flowering and fruiting of Trioncinia patens has been observed in January and February (Queensland Herbarium , 2011).
- Threatening processes
- Threatening process for Trioncinia patens include; grazing by domestic stock (many of the species in this group of daisies are highly palatable to cattle); chance stochastic events (e.g. change in drainage on the sites, predation by wildlife) that may reduce the size of populations or eliminate them entirely; genetic inbreeding depression due to the small population size (given that all populations are very small (between 6 and 100 individuals), this is a highly likely scenario); weed invasion that may reduce available resources or habitat for future recruitment (all populations) and inappropriate fire regimes that may kill individuals or prevent recruitment (Holland and Butler, 2007; Forster, 2007). The other species of Trioncinia is known to be tolerant of irregular disturbance (Fensham et al. 2002).
- Status notes
- Trioncinia patens is listed as Endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management documents
- Forster, P. (2007) Nomination form for listing, changing the status, or delisting a native species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 Trioncinia patens. Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee 2007.
- Management recommendations
- Trioncinia patens is a poorly known species in need of intensive field survey to determine its geographical range, area of occupancy and number and persistence of individuals. There is no information available on the genetics, reproductive biology, dispersal, recruitment or population structure of this species (Forster, 2007; Holland and Butler, 2007).
- References
- Fensham, R.J., Fairfax, R.J. and Holman, J.E. (2002). Response of a rare herb (Trioncinia retroflexa) from semi-arid tropical grassland to occasional fire and grazing. Austral Ecology 27: 284-290.
Forster, P. (2007). Nomination form for listing, changing the status, or delisting a native species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 Trioncinia patens. Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee 2007.
Holland, A.E. and Butler, D.W. (2007). Trioncinia patens A.E. Holland and D.W. Butler (Asteraceae: Coreopsideae: Chrysanthellinae), a new and endangered species from central Queensland. Austrobaileya 7 (3): 566.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 6/12/2011. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (12/12/2011)
Other resources
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=31728.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
