Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Adriana tomentosa var. tomentosa

Male flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Murrumbidgee River, ACT

Male flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Female flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Murrumbidgee River, ACT

Common name

Eastern Bitter-bush, Mallee Bitter-bush

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Where found

Shrubland and along streams. Widespread, rarely coastal.

Notes

Shrub to 2 m high, stellate hairy (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see) or hairless. Leaf tips sharp or blunt. Leaf margins with sharp or blunt teeth, sometimes scalloped, rarely entire. Young stems whitish, green, or reddish. Leaves alternating up the stems, or occasionally alternating and opposite each other, 3–18 cm long, 20–130 mm wide, usually deeply 3-lobed, surfaces mostly hairy or sometimes hairless. Male and female flowers on different plants. Male flowers with 4–5 sepals 3-5 mm long; 0 petals. Female flowers with 3–8 sepals 2.5–12 mm long, in 2 whorls; 0 petals. Male spikes 5–34 cm long. Female spikes 1–7 cm long. Flowers mainly spring.

Rare Vic.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Adriana~tomentosa  (accessed 2 January, 2021)