Kingia australis
Aboroginal: Bullanock.
Region: southwestern Australia.
English: Blackboy; Black gin.
Source: Essence Online.
Genus: 1 species.
Botany: herb, grows extremely slowly, ± 1 cm per year, up to 6 m high; can live for centuries, 400-year-old plants; trunk, unbranched, thick, consisting of accumulated leaf-bases; leaves long, slender, cluster on top; flowers in egg-shaped clusters on the ends of long curved stems.
Taxonomy: Kingia and Xanthorrhoea can look similar, especially when not flowering; biologically they are quite distinct, Xanthorrhoea have a secondary thickening meristem in the trunk, whereas Kingia lack this feature; they have very different inflorescence.