Macropidia
Macropidia fuliginosa, the sole species of genus Macropidia, is a perennial rhizomatous flowering plant. Commonly known as the black kangaroo paw, it is endemic to Southwest Australia, specifically from Perth to Geraldton in the north of the region.[1][2]
A small perennial herb with erect green-yellow leaves, occurring with a height between 0.2 and 1.8 metres in height. The leaves are strap-like, between 200 and 500 mm long, and tightly clustered around ground level. They emerge from a stem beneath the ground, a rhizome, that allows the plants to regenerate after fire. Flowers occur in spring and summer on branched stem to a metre or more. Black hairs occur along the flowers and stems.[3]
It can be germinated from seed for cultivation, but commercial production use tissue cultures as a means of propagation. This species is not as widely seen as the kangaroos paws of Anigozanthus , whose species are hardier and more successfully cultivated.[5]
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.[7] The description of the species in the Botanical Magazine in 1847, then known only from dried specimens, gave the common name sooty anigozanthos.
