Howittia
Encyclopedia
For the brachiopod
Brachiopod
Brachiopods are a phylum of marine animals that have hard "valves" on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection...

 genus, see
Howittia (brachiopod).


Howittia is a plant genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 that contains just one species, Howittia trilocularis (Blue Howittia), a shrub which is native to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Description

Howittia trilocularis is a shrub that grows to between 1 and 3 metres in height. It has lancelolate to ovate leaves up to 10 cm long that are dark green above and white or yellow to brown beneath. The flowers, which range in colour from lavender to deep mauve, are produced on long peduncles from late spring through summer.

Taxonomy

Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

 first formally described the species in 1855, from the type specimen which was found growing on "bushy declivities around Lake King
Gippsland Lakes
The Gippsland Lakes are a network of lakes, marshes and lagoons in east Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an area of about 600 km2. The largest of the lakes are Lake Wellington , Lake King and Lake Victoria. They are fed by the Avon, Thomson, Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo...

". Howittia was named for Godfrey Howitt
Godfrey Howitt
Godfrey Howitt , entomologist, was born in Heanor in Derbyshire to Thomas Howitt. Thomas had farmed a few acres of land at Heanor and joined the Society of Friends on his marriage with Phoebe Tantum, a member of the same society, with whom he acquired a considerable fortune.Godfrey was educated at...

's work as an amateur botanist.

Distribution

It occurs in eucalypt
Eucalypt
Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...

 forests in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 and South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

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