Black kangaroo paw

Description

Macropidia fuliginosa, the sole species of genus Macropidia, is a perennial rhizomatous flowering plant. A relation of the kangaroo paws, Anigozanthus, which are also endemic to Southwest Australia, it is referred to as the black kangaroo paw. Bearing unusual black and green flowers, it occurs on a coastal plain from Perth to Geraldton. A species of the Haemodoraceae family, once allied to the kangaroo paws Anigozanthus, but recognised as a separate and monotypic sister genus named Macropidia. It was first described by James Drummond in a letter intended for publication in 1843, and named as "Anigozanthus Molloyiae". Drummond wrote of this species as a flower of mourning, and provided the epithet in reference to the recently deceased Georgiana Molloy, an early botanical collector of the region. The first published description by W. J. Hooker in the Botanical Magazine provided the name Anigozanthos fuliginosa in 1847, but its later separation by Drummond and William Henry Harvey to a new genus in 1855 used Macropidia fumosa. The erection of a new genus followed a visit by Hooker to the Swan River colony in 1854, the region in which Drummond lived and collected. The priority of the Hooker's earlier epithet was recognised by G. C. Druce, who established its revision as the current name Macropidia fuliginosa in 1917. The type locality is not certain, and while once thought to have been collected in the Hill River region, Stephen Hopper gave the location as "near Moore River" in the Flora of Australia. The collection was made by Johnston Drummond in 1843, probably close to the site where he was killed two years later; Rica Erickson identified a possible site near New Norcia and determined that he did not habitually visit the Hill river region. The name kangaroo paw is given for the flowering branches resemblance to a kangaroos forearm. The 'black' species is contained by a monotypic genus, eleven other similar plants of this name are contained by the genus Anigozanthus. The generic name Macropidia refers to the kangaroo genus Macropus; fuliginosa is from the Latin for soot (fuligo) referring to the black colouration. The description of the species in the Botanical Magazine in 1847, then known only from dried specimens, gave the common name sooty anigozanthos. "Nollamara" is the Aboriginal word for the black kangaroo paw, a name given to a suburb of Perth.