Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Pomaderris phylicifolia

Flowering stems (subsp. ericoides). Photographer Don Wood, Wog Wog Creek, south of Nerriga

Flowers and leaves (subsp. ericoides). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Shrub (subsp. ericoides). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Line drawings (subsp. ericoides). i. flower; leaf outline; leaf lower surface; flower; leaf transverse section. A. Barley, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board 

Shrub (subsp. phylicifolia). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Line drawings (subsp. phylicifolia). h. leaf tips (lower surface); leaf transverse section. A. Barley, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board 

Common name

Narrow-leaf pomaderris, Slender pomaderris

Family

Rhamnaceae

Where found

Open forest, woodland, shrubland, grassy areas, rocky sites. along streams, and swamp margins. Widespread. rare on the coast and Western Slopes.

subsp. ericoides  Ranges, tablelands, and ACT.

subsp. phylicifolia   Ranges and tablelands. Rarely eslewhere.

Notes

Shrub to 2.5 m tall. Stems greyish, with long spreading hairs over short branched to stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.3-2 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, upper surface bristly with scattered simple hairs or rarely hairlesss; lower surface hairy with stellate hairs, or with longer simple hairs on the midrib, lateral veins obscure or looping to the inside and not reaching the leaf margins, tips blunt, margins entire, and curved to rolled down. Flowers cream to yellow, with 0 petals and 5 sepals 1.2–2 mm long, falling early, in short clusters. Flowers Spring.

Rare Vic (both subspecies).

subsp. ericoides has leaves 0.3–0.8 cm long, 0.7–1.3 mm wide, more or less cylindrical, the margins strongly curled back, and lower surface of the leaves scarcely visible.

subsp. phylicifolia has leaves 0.6–2 cm long, 1–6 mm wide, more or less flat in cross section, with the margins curved or rolled back, and lower surface of the leaves visible.

PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Pomaderris~phylicifolia  (accessed 2 February, 2021)