Richea

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Richea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/richea/). Accessed 2024-04-19.

Family

Epacridaceae

Species in genus

Richea scoparia

Glossary

corolla: The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
style: Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
apex: (pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
capitate: Head-like.
capsule: Dry dehiscent fruit; formed from syncarpous ovary.
family: A group of genera more closely related to each other than to genera in other families. Names of families are identified by the suffix ‘-aceae’ (e.g. Myrtaceae) with a few traditional exceptions (e.g. Leguminosae).
stigma: (in a flower) The part of the carpel that receives pollen and on which it germinates. May be at the tip of a short or long style or may be reduced to a stigmatic surface at the apex of the ovary.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Richea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/richea/). Accessed 2024-04-19.

Richea pandanifolia growing beneath a canopy of Eucalyptus and Athrotaxis at Lake Dobson in Tasmania. October 2022. Image Dan Crowley.

There are ten species in this Australian genus, all save one confined to Tasmania. It is the type of a small and remarkable group of the Epacris family in which not only are the leaves parallel-veined as in the grasses, but many species in habit and foliage resemble arborescent monocotyledons such as the cordylines and screw-pines (Pandanus). The resemblance to the latter is recalled in the name given to the tallest of the richeas, R. pandanifolia, which in places attains a height of 30 ft.

The leaves of Richea are rigid, with a sheathing base, crowded along the branches or tufted. Flowers in terminal clusters. Corolla closed at the apex except for a small aperture, not separated into lobes but splitting transversely near the base, the lower part persistent, the upper part deciduous (like the operculum of the eucalypts). Stamens usually five. Style one, with a small capitate stigma. Fruit a capsule. The mainly Australasian genus Dracophyllum, well represented in New Zealand, is allied to Richea.

The genus was named by Robert Brown in honour of the French naturalist C.-A.-G. Riche, who died in 1791 during Admiral d’Entrecasteaux’s voyage in vain search of the French explorer La Pérouse.

Richea scoparia, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, June 2018. Image John Grimshaw.