page_title: Xylomelum
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Xylomelum / Classification
caption_attribution_description: Xylomelum pyriforme flowers, Stotts Reserve, Bexley NSW
context_page_description: Xylomelum is a genus of seven species in the plant family Proteaceae. The name derives from the Greek xylon and melon.
  They are native to Australia, growing in the form of tall shrubs and trees. The genus includes at least two species with the common name woody pear, Xylomelum pyriforme in the eastern states of Australia, and Xylomelum occidentale in Western Australia.
  Two species, Xylomelum angustifolium and Xylomelum occidentale, are endemic to Western Australia
  . The remaining species are found in NSW and Queensland.
  A detailed description of Xylomelum is found at Flora of Australia online.
context_section_description: In 1788, Joseph Gaertner described the type species of Xylomelum as Banksia pyriformis, a species whose genus was effectively reclassified when James Edward Smith, in 1798, described the genus, Xylomelum, assigning it to the natural order Proteae of Jussieu. Smith gave the essential characters of Xylomelum as: flower spikes with simple scales, flowers with four petals bearing four stamens, with a blunt, club-shaped stigma, with a uni-locular capsule having two seeds, the seeds being winged.
  In 1811, Robert Brown, in On the Proteaceae of Jussieu , gave a key to the genera of Proteaceae. The key places Xylomelum in the group of Proteaceae which have dehiscent fruit, and are unilocular with two seeds, thereby grouping Anadenia, Grevillea, Hakea, Lambertia, Orites and Rhopala together. Within the group, Xylomelum is distinguished from Orites and Rhopala by having winged seeds, a thickened woody follicle with an excentric locule, and a club-shaped stigma.
  Engler, in 1888, divided the Proteaceae into two sub-families, Persoonioideae & Grevilloideae, placing Xylomelum in Grevilloideae, and as being like Helicia in having the flower axis at the base with four glands, but differing from it by having the inflorescence in 'ears', not in loose 'grapes', and by having seeds with wings.
  Within the Proteaceae, Johnson & Briggs (1975) placed Xylomelum in the subfamily Grevilleoideae and the tribe Heliciaea (together with Helicia, Triunia and Hollandaea). However, Weston & Barker (2006), argue that within the tribe of Roupaleae, Xylomelum should be placed in the subtribe of Lambertiinae and not together with the Helicia (in the subtribe of Heliciinae, using in part, the evidence of the  molecular studies of Hoot & Douglas,  who pair Xylomelum with Lambertia.
  See Grevilleoideae for further discussion of the placement of Xylomelum within the Proteaceae.
caption: X. pyriforme flowers
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD", "Image Model": "C200Z,D510Z", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "v358p-74", "Image DateTime": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9994", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "28/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "886", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}