Leucopogon

Leucopogon is a genus of about 150-160 species of shrubs or small trees in the family Ericaceae, in the section of that family formerly treated as the separate family Epacridaceae. They are native to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the western Pacific Islands and Malaysia, with the greatest species diversity in southeastern Australia. Plants in this genus have leaves with a few more or less parallel veins, and tube-shaped flowers usually with a white beard inside.

Plants in the genus Leucopogon range from prostrate shrubs to small trees. The leaves are arranged alternately and usually have about three, more or less parallel veins visible on the lower surface. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets either singly or in spikes of a few to many flowers. There is a single egg-shaped to circular bract and a pair of similar bracteoles at the base of each flower immediately below the five sepals. The sepals are similar to the bracts but larger. The petals are fused to form a tube with the five petal tips rolled back or spreading, usually with a beard of white hairs inside. The stamens are attached to the tube near its tip and have a short filament and the tip of the style is thin. The fruit is a drupe.

In 2005, following cladistic analysis, in a paper published in Australian Systematic Botany, Christopher John Quinn and others transferred some species previously known as species of Leucopogon to other genera, including Androstoma Hook.f., Acrotriche R.Br., Acrothamnus Quinn and Agiortia Quinn. These species include the former L. colensoi, L. milliganii, L. maccraei, L. montanus. These, and other changes proposed have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census (“APC”) but not the change of L. melaleucoides to Acrothamnus melaleucoides.[4][5]

The genus Leucopogon was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus.[2][3]