Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Asterolasia elegans

Flowering branches. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Royal Botanic Gardens Mt Annan, near Campbelltown

Common name

None

Family

Rutaceae

Where found

Forest and gulllies in sheltered sites. Kuringai Chase National Park. Along and within 5 km of the Hawkesbury River. Sightings elsewhere in Sydney.

Notes

Shrub to 3 m high. Young branches densely rusty-red stellate-hairy (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating up the stems, 4–13 cm long, 9–25 mm wide, tips drawn out to a long point, upper surface dark green with white and rusty stellate hairs, lower surface densely white and rusty stellate-hairy. Flowers white, with 5 petals each 8–14 mm long. Densely white stellate-hairy outside. Flowers in 1–9-flowered clusters. Flowering: spring.

Endangered Australia. Endangered NSW. Provisions of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.

NSW Threatened Species profile:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10072 (accessed 3 January, 2021) 

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Asterolasia~elegans (accessed 3 January, 2021)