Neorites
{{short description|Monotypic genus of plants}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Speciesbox
|image = Neorites kevedianus ALA2.jpg
|image_caption = Inflorescence
|status = LC
|status_system = IUCN3.1
|status_ref = {{R|IUCN}}
|display_parents = 4
|genus = Neorites
|parent_authority = L.S.Sm.
|species = kevedianus
|authority = L.S.Sm.
}}
Neorites is a monotypic genus of plants in the family Proteaceae.{{Flora of Australia Online|name=Neorites|id=45104}} The sole species Neorites kevedianus, commonly called fishtail oak or fishtail silky oak, is a tall tree endemic to the wet tropics rainforests of north eastern Queensland, Australia.{{Flora of Australia Online|name=Neorites kevediana|id=45105}}{{cite web |url=https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/neorites_kevedianus.htm |title=Neorites kevedianus |author=F.A. Zich |author2=B.P.M Hyland |author3=T. Whiffen |author4=R.A. Kerrigan |website=Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8 |year=2020 |publisher=Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) |access-date=15 March 2021 }}
Taxonomy and naming
Queensland botanist Lindsay Smith named the species in 1969, based on a specimen collected near Kuranda in 1955 by Queensland forestry officers Kevin J. White and H. Edgar Volck. Smith coined the species name from the first names of the finders.{{Cite book | last1= Wrigley | first1= John | last2= Fagg | first2= Murray | title= Banksias, Waratahs and Grevilleas | year= 1991 | publisher= Angus & Robertson | location= Sydney | isbn= 0-207-17277-3| pages= 463–64}}
Peter H. Weston and Nigel Barker refined the classification of the Proteaceae in 2006, incorporating molecular data. Here, Neorites emerged as closely related to the genera Orites and Roupala. They thus placed the three genera in the subtribe Roupalinae, conceding that the next closest relatives of this group is unclear. This group lies within the subfamily Grevilleoideae.{{Cite journal | last1 = Weston | first1= Peter H. | last2= Barker | first2= Nigel P. | year= 2006 | title= A new suprageneric classification of the Proteaceae, with an annotated checklist of genera | journal= Telopea | volume= 11 | issue= 3 | pages= 314–344 | url= http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/80856/Tel11Wes314.pdf | doi= 10.7751/telopea20065733 | doi-broken-date= 1 November 2024 | doi-access= free }} Clock dating with molecular and fossil data indicated ancestors of Neorites and the South American genus Roupala may have diverged in the mid-Oligocene around 30 million years ago, and that this lineage in turn separated from the ancestors of Orites in the late Eocene around 36 million years ago.{{Cite journal | last1=Sauquet | first1= Herve | last2= Weston | first2= Peter H. | last3= Anderson | first3= Cajsa Lisa | last4= Barker | first4= Nigel P. | last5= Cantrill | first5= David J. | last6= Mast | first6= Austin R. | last7= Savolainen | first7= Vincent | year= 2009 | title= Contrasted patterns of hyperdiversification in Mediterranean hotspots | journal= PNAS | volume= 106 | issue= 1 | pages= 221–25 | doi= 10.1073/pnas.0805607106 | pmid=19116275 | pmc=2629191| bibcode= 2009PNAS..106..221S | doi-access= free }}
A compound-leaved fossil species has been recovered from the middle Eocene Golden Grove site in Adelaide that closely resembles Neorites kevedianus. Although abundant at this site, it has not been recovered elsewhere.{{Cite book | last1= Hill | first1= Robert S. | title= History of the Australian Vegetation: Cretaceous to Recent | publisher= Cambridge University Press | year= 1994 | pages= 269 | isbn= 0-521-40197-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loBrTOJDojoC&q=%22Neorites%22&pg=PA269 }}
Description
Neorites kevedianus is a tree reaching {{convert|15|–|30|m|ft|abbr=on}} in height. The new growth is covered in brownish fur.
Distribution and habitat
References
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{{Proteaceae genera}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q6994112}}
Category:Monotypic Proteaceae genera