 Labillardière did not acknowledge any collector, and so it was long thought that Labillardière himself had collected the first botanical specimens in 1792 while naturalist to Bruni d 'Entrecasteaux's expedition in search of the lost ships of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse. However, this and eight other species described by Labillardière do not occur in any locations that he visited, suggesting that he obtained specimens from someone else whom he failed to credit. Though he did not specify a type specimen for A. obovata, a specimen upon which the accompanying figure in Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen appears to be based has been located; it is annotated, apparently in Labillardière's hand, as having been collected by Leschenault. Ernest Charles Nelson states with certainty that Labillardière based this species on specimens collected by Leschenault, and this view has been accepted by some scholars though others treat it more cautiously.
