Kingdom Plantae Family Proteaceae Rank Species | Order Proteales Genus Isopogon | |
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Similar Isopogon dubius, Isopogon latifolius, Isopogon fletcheri, Isopogon anemonifolius, Isopogon dawsonii | ||
Isopogon divergens, commonly known as the spreading coneflower, is a small shrub that is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia.
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in 1830, based on material collected by Charles Fraser along the Swan River. In 1891, German botanist Otto Kuntze published Revisio generum plantarum, his response to what he perceived as a lack of method in existing nomenclatural practice. Because Isopogon was based on Isopogon anemonifolius, and that species had already been placed by Richard Salisbury in the segregate genus Atylus in 1807, Kuntze revived the latter genus on the grounds of priority, and made the new combination Atylus divergens for this species. However, Kuntze's revisionary program was not accepted by the majority of botanists. Ultimately, the genus Isopogon was nomenclaturally conserved over Atylus by the International Botanical Congress of 1905.