Adenanthos - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

The centre of diversity for the genus is Southwest Western Australia, to which 31 of the 33 species are endemic. The south coast of Western Australia, between the Stirling Range and the Fitzgerald River area, is particular diverse, with 17 species occurring on the Esperance Plains alone. This is one of two areas dominated by kwongan heath, a vegetation complex renowned for its species richness and high levels of endemism; the other area of kwongan, further north on the west coast around Mount Lesueur, harbours surprisingly few Adenanthos species.

Species occur throughout most of the southwest. In northern areas, where there are fewer species, the genus does not extend into drier inland areas, being absent from northern parts of the Avon Wheatbelt region. To the south, however, they extend well inland, extending even beyond the southwest into the neighbouring desert: A. argyreus occurs as far inland as Southern Cross.

Eastwards along the south coast, the genus occurs in disjunct populations on isolated pockets of siliceous sand surrounded by the calcareous soils of the Great Australian Bight. The most easterly occurrence in Western Australia is at Twilight Cove.

The two species that occur outside southwest Western Australia are Adenanthos macropodianus (Kangaroo Island Glandflower), which is endemic to Kangaroo Island; and Adenanthos terminalis (Yellow Glandflower), which occurs in South Australia on the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island, and from Adelaide eastwards into western Victoria.