Verticordia Nitens - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The type specimen for this species was first collected in the 1830s somewhere around the Swan River, Western Australia. It was described by Endlicher in 1838 as a member of the Verticordia genus, amongst the earliest of accepted descriptions. John Lindley had previously described the species as Chrysorhoë nitens, its placement within Verticordia was attributed to publication by Schauer in 1841. However, Endlicher's description as Verticordia nitida in 1838 is recognised as an orthographic variant of the current combination. Lindley's generic epithet of this description—presumably from Greek for 'golden' and 'stream'—was revived when Alex George assigned the species to Verticordia subgenus Chrysoma as the section Chrysorhoe. The staminodes of this species, infertile and modified reproductive organs, are notably shorter than others in the section Chrysorhoe. The two other species in this section can be differentiated from the usually bright orange display of Verticordia nitens by the larger, more yellow to golden petals of the flowers, with broad staminodes, found on Verticordia aurea; and the early flowering, shorter staminodes and style, and lemon colour, of Verticordia patens.

George's arrangement within the genus can be summarised as,

Verticordia (101 species)

V. subg. Chrysoma (21 spp.)

V. sect. Chrysoma

V. sect. Jugata

V. sect. Unguiculata

V. sect. Sigalantha

V. sect. Chrysorhoe (3 spp.)

V. patens

V. nitens

V. aurea

V. sect. Cooloomia

V. sect. Synandra