Acianthus ledwardii Rupp (1938:113)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
The validity of A. ledwardii is disputed:
"Very close to A.fornicatus, which is remains common in coastal heath remnants in the Burleigh Heads area; A.ledwardii is treated as a synonym of A.fornicatus in AVH and ALA, as it is difficult to justify recognition of A. ledwardii on morphological grounds alone (DNA sequencing may shed further light on this)"
(Silcock et al., 2019:SM:1)
Conservation Status
Extinct (Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024) or Rediscovered (Kores, 1995 fide Humphreys et al., 2019 contra Kores, 1995) or Invalid (synonym of A. fornicatus) (Kores, 1995)
Last record: 1934 (Silcock et al., 2019:SM:1); June 1938 (Kores, 1995:202; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024 [as 1938])
If A. ledwardii is valid (fide POWO, 2024), it was last recorded in the 1930's (Kores, 1995:202; Silcock et al., 2019:SM:1; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024), and allegedly being rediscovered some time later (Kores, 1995 fide Humphreys et al., 2019 contra). However, it is considered an Extinct taxon by (Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2024).
Distribution
Queensland (& New South Wales?), Australia
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Rupp, H. M. R. (1938). A new orchid for south Queensland Acianthus Ledwardii, sp. nov. The Queensland Naturalist 10(6): 111-113.
Other references:
Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2024). Plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae045 [Appendix S1]
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne.
Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Monocotyledons Database in ACCESS: 1-71827. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Hnatiuk, R. J. (1990). Census of Australian vascular plants. Australian Flora and Fauna Series 11: 1-650.
Humphreys, Aelys M., Govaerts, Rafaël, Ficinski, Sarah Z., Lughadha, Eimear Nic and Vorontsova, Maria S. (2019). Global dataset shows geography and life form predict modern plant extinction and rediscovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 1043-1047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0906-2 [Supplementary Dataset 1]
Kores, Paul J. (1995). A systematic study of the genus Acianthus (Orchidaceae: Diurideae). Allertonia 7(3): 87-220 [199-203]. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23190053
POWO. (2024). Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 10 September 2024]
Silcock, Jen L., Field, Ashley R., Walsh, Neville G. and Fensham, Roderick J. (2019). To name those lost: assessing extinction likelihood in the Australian vascular flora. Oryx 54(2): 167-177. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318001357 [Supplementary Material]
Walter, Kerry S. and Gillett, Harriet J. (eds.). (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland & Cambridge, UK: IUCN – The World Conservation Union. lxiv + 862 pp.
http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni?00TAXON_NAME=Acianthus+ledwardii+Rupp