Lambertia Formosa - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Specimens of Lambertia formosa were collected by botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during Lieutenant James Cook's landing at Botany Bay between April and May in 1770. These are thought to have been obtained from vegetation currently known as the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub that occurs in sandy areas near present-day La Perouse. The shrub was first described in 1798 by English botanist James Edward Smith who concurrently erected the new genus Lambertia, the name honouring English botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert. The specific name formosa is the Latin adjective for 'handsome'. English plantsman Henry Charles Andrews wrote in 1799, "Of all the plants yet introduced from New Holland, that have hitherto flowered with us, this unquestionably takes the lead for beauty, considering the plant altogether", although his countryman Joseph Knight in his 1809 work On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae added that the species name "applies only to the flowers, the foliage being generally of a sickly hue". French botanist Michel Gandoger described specimens collected at Hornsby and Port Jackson as Lambertia proxima, and material sent to him by plant collector Charles Walter as L. barbata in 1919; these turned out to be L. formosa. Gandoger described 212 taxa of Australian plants, almost all of which turned out to be species already described.

One of eleven species of the genus Lambertia within the family Proteaceae, Lambertia formosa is the only one found in eastern Australia as the others are all restricted to southwest Western Australia. Common names include mountain devil and honey flower, the former from the fruit's resemblance to a devil's head. No subspecies are recognised, although plants in the southern part of its range from Bargo River to Braidwood have longer leaves.