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Identifying the Large-leaf Sunshine Conebushes

When identifying plants there are three philosophies of describing or "knowing " plants which must be borne in mind when trying to recognize a species. Thus plants can be described in terms of their GISS, Diagnostic Features or Key Features:

GISS (General Impression of Size and Shape), - pronounced and occasionally spelled: Jizz)
Plants are different from one another. Some features are easy to describe, some are very difficult. Generally measurements, colour and the absence of a feature are easy to list. Hair types, shapes, orientations and textures are often very noticeable (good for GISS), but may be very difficult to describe. Often related species look quite distinct, but describing these differences can be difficult or very technical.
The GISS of a species takes a long while to develop correctly and is acquired through experience. GISS is the ideal amateur tool, but it needs to be cultured by exposure. In addition, GISS is limited to the forms encountered in the past - moving to a new area may require that one's GISS be "re-tuned". Most of us learn new species by example - someone shows us a plant and gives it a name without any explanation. We learn what the species looks like (its GISS) without ever describing (or consciously knowing) the features which characterize it. This is why a well-illustrated field guide is worth thousands of descriptions, and a good teacher in the field is worth hundreds of hours spent in herbaria or books.

Diagnostic Features

Some species have unique features, shared by no other similar species. This makes them easy to describe and identify! Diagnostic features are ideal for the initial focusing of a GISS, although occasionally they may be ephemeral (some Conebushes flower for two weeks a year). Other species are more variable and require that sets of features be compared to make a good diagnosis. These species are often difficult to identify from descriptions, although often they may have a GISS which is distinctive (but which defies easy description).

Key features

Features listed in keys and summary descriptions in botanical texts may not have anything to do with GISS or Diagnostic Features (although, ideally they would include both). Because keys rely on separating species into groups, species listed earlier have fewer key features than those listed later. When keys do not use natural groupings, these features may be useless for "understanding" species differences. Key features are often arbitrary, and are merely "a specific working tool." Different authors may construct totally different keys using unrelated features, as is shown below.

Whether one is trying to learn a species using keys, diagnostics or by example, remember that it is only possible to accurately identify a species if you have a comprehensive "image" of the species in your mind. There is no substitute for experience.

In the accounts on the following page I have attempted to tease out the differences between the three sets of features using the Sunshine Conebushes. Of course, the features in each category will differ depending on one's schooling. Thus a taxonomist will have a GISS centred on diagnostic features (DF) and key features (KF), but this might be deficient in easily detected field characters as it relies more on features of dead, squashed, mounted branches. A field researcher or amateur may rely entirely on shape, colour and hairiness of leaves and still achieve "morphospecies" which are every bit as accurate as those of the taxonomist.

Ld microcephalum

GISS: A brightly-coloured (clean, clear, vivid), yellowish plant with strap-shaped leaves. A tall, erect bush, with almost hairless stems. Buds covered in thick, oily, brown resin. Obvious diagnostic feature (look below male bushes for "DF 1" when not flowering).
DF: 1. Large brown, scallop-shaped involucral bracts in both sexes. 2. Fruit with asymmetrical ridge.
KF: Williams used the fruit (see DF 2) to separate this species from others with nearly flat seeds.
Beware: The "boot polish" resin on the female cones also features in Ld gand and in buds of Ld laur, although it is not as thickly coated in these species.

Ld laureolum

GISS: A dirty-coloured, yellowish plant with oblong-shaped leaves. Young leaves with grey or brownish hairs, giving entirely different GISS to that of the flowering bush. Bush rounded in shape. Cones barely visible except on old stems. Usually occurs on the sandy flats.
DF: 1. Large, yellow, keel-shaped involucral leaves which loosely hide the flowerheads in both sexes. AND 2. Spiral grooves (feel them - this is a tactile feature!) on mature cones.
KF: Williams uses the hidden flowerheads and the slightly larger size (10-50% larger for leaves and cones than Ld cryp).
Beware: The involucral leaves hiding the cones fall off on older wood, leaving the oldest cones exposed.

Ld gandogeri

GISS: Leaves broad, often rounded, bright green, hairless when mature. A low, rounded shrub, usually with a reddish tinge. Cones visible and surrounded by erect, flat leaves which may occasionally surround the cones but usually leave the cone clearly visible. Cones usually covered with thin layer of brown "boot polish". GISS somewhat confused by frequent hybridizing with Ld xanthoconus and also (rarely) with Ld laur. Usually occurs at higher altitudes - above that of similar species.
DF: 1. Involucral leaves flat (not keel-shaped). AND 2. Leaves broad (usually oval).
KF: Lacking obvious diagnostic features this is the last species to be keyed out in Williams. Features used include the exposed female flowerheads, with 8 florets in 8 spiral rows, the large size of the cones, and the hairless (when mature) basal bracts.
Beware: This is a variable species and leaf and cone size vary considerably among populations.

Ld strobilinum

GISS: This is a large, stout, robust bush, dark green in colour (although often with a reddish tinge), and purplish, hairy stems. During flowering the involucral leaves turn ivory. The leaves are hairless when mature, but retain a fringe of hairs. The cones are large and dense (with lots of cone bracts - best seen on dead cones - see DF 1).
DF: 1. The female flowerhead bears 13 spiral rows in which the sets of 12 florets are arranged.
2. Stems covered with erect hairs (not matted).
[Also - confined to the Cape Peninsula.]
KF: The large number of flowers (hence spirals and florets per spiral) in the flowerhead is an obvious feature separating this species from others.

Ld cryptocephalum

GISS: A pale, yellowish plant with strap-shaped leaves. Bush neatly oblong in shape, about three-quarters the size of Ld laur. Cones and flowerheads completely hidden by involucral leaves (see DF 1).
DF: 1. Very many, large, yellow keel-shaped involucral leaves which hide the flowerheads in both sexes. To see the female flowerhead these have to be peeled off. 2. Smaller and paler than Ld laur.
3. Flowers from March to May (Ld laur = June).
KF: This is a difficult species to separate from Ld laur but is only 50-90% as large in most features. This difference in measurements is used in the key.
Beware: Unless care is taken this species will readily be identified as Ld laur. If more populations of this species are discovered its parameters may be found to overlap more with Ld laur.

Features to beware of: The following features are easily incorporated into a preliminary GISS and have to be discarded before an accurate GISS is developed -

Brown resin: The thick, chocolate-brown resin on buds and cones of Ld micr, are distinctive, but a thin coating of resin also occurs on both Ld gand and Ld laur.

Exposed cones: Although the cones of Ld laur and Ld cryp are concealed by the inner involucral leaves, these fall off on older wood, so that the lower-most cones are almost always exposed. The boat-shaped bracts are the feature to concentrate on rather than the fact that the cones are hidden.

New growth: In all Conebushes the difference in colour between flowering plants, non-flowering plants and plants with new growth is striking. This can completely change the GISS of the plants. Thus, in Ld laureolum, the leaves which are green for six months turn yellow with flowering and then the new leaves appear with their silvery-brown hue - the degree of difference between the mature and new leaves seems to depend on the degree of stress: marked differences occur on shales, but the difference may be slight on sandy soils.

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