Mj. Bayly et al., REINSTATEMENT OF ERIOSTEMON-BANKSII (RUTACEAE), WITH A REPORT ON THE COMPOSITION OF LEAF ESSENTIAL OILS IN E-BANKSII AND E-AUSTRALASIUS S. STR, Australian systematic botany, 11(1), 1998, pp. 13-22
Eriostemon banksii A. Cunn. ex Endl., currently recognised as a subspe
cies of E. australasius Pers., is reinstated at specific level. Charac
ters that distinguish it from E. australasius include: distinctly 5-ne
rved leaves, non-imbricate bracteoles, beaked fruit, anthers that lack
a white apiculum and white petals. A preliminary investigation of lea
f essential oils in E. banksii and E. australasius is also presented.
Extracts of E. banksii contained both cis and trans-methyl-4-isoprenox
ycinnamate, which were absent in E. australasius. Extracts of E. banks
ii contained proportionally more beta-elemene (7.2-8.1%), beta-caryoph
yllene (7.7-8.4%) and an unknown sesquiterpene hydrocarbon (12.3-15.1%
), and proportionally less a-pinene (2.8-8.3%), beta-pinene (0.2-0.8%)
and limonene (0.4-0.5%) when compared with E. australasius (0.3-0.4%,
0.6%; 0.1%, 9.5-18.0%, 7.4-15.2%, and 1.2-7.8% respectively).