D P.H.Weston Persoonia terminalis, also known as the Torrington geebung, is a shrub belonging to the family Proteaceae, and native to northern New South Wales and southern Queensland in eastern Australia.
P. terminalis grows to 1.5 metres (5 feet), with an upright or spreading habit, and narrow short leaves up to 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) in length.
The yellow flowers mainly appear in December and January (Australia's temperate zone summer),[3] and are followed by purple-striped green drupes (stone fruit).
Persoonia terminalis was first reported by Lawrie Johnson of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, in the 1981 edition of Flora of New South Wales.
[6] They considered it more likely a species in its own right,[5] as they believed the description of the Queensland populations did not match the P. oxycoccoides from central New South Wales.
The type specimen was collected 3.4 kilometres (2.1 mi) south of the Torrington pub on the Emmaville–Torrington road by Weston and ecologist Peter Richards,[7] and is now housed in the National Herbarium of New South Wales, which is part of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Sydney and Office of Environment and Heritage.
[10] It is classified within the genus as within the Lanceolata group, which consists of 58 closely related species with similar flowers but very different foliage.
[12] Persoonia terminalis grows as a shrub reaching a height of 0.7–1.5 metres (2+1⁄4–5 ft), with an upright or spreading habit.
P. terminalis is described as mostly anauxotelic, which means each stalk bears an individual flower that is subtended by a scale leaf at its junction with the stem.
terminalis is found in the Torrington-Binghi area on the western parts of the far Northern Tablelands in New South Wales, roughly halfway between Glen Innes and the Queensland border, at an altitude of between 900 and 1,100 metres (3,000 and 3,600 ft) above sea level.
[10] Although P. t. recurva has not been recorded from Kings Plains National Park, it could be expected to be found there due to the availability of suitable habitat.
[20] Colletid bees of subgenus Cladocerapis within the genus Leioproctus exclusively forage on and pollinate flowers of many species of Persoonia.
Bees of subgenus Filiglossa in the same genus also specialise in feeding on Persoonia flowers, but do not appear to be effective pollinators.