Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Astrotricha sp. Wallagaraugh
Common name
Merimbula star-hair
Family
Araliaceae
Where found
Dry forest. Coastal near Tura Beach over a three kilometre stretch beside the Tathra Road, lying partly along the southern edge of Bournda National Park, and near Middle Beach, Merimbula. Ranges south west of Eden along the upper reaches of the Wallagaraugh River.
Notes
Shrub to 1.8 m tall. Branchlets, leaf undersurfaces, and flowers covered with small stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, 2–4 cm long (to 6 cm in juveniles), 1.5–2 mm wide, upper surface convex with conspicuous short wrinkles, these often each capped with a small rough point, margins curved down; tips rounded. Flowers pale green to cream with 5 petals 2.3–2.5 mm long. Flowers in clusters 3–20 cm long. Flowering: October–December.
Leaves convex, margins curved down, shorter and usually wider than the leaves of Astrotricha linearis.
Full name Astrotricha sp. Wallagaraugh (R.O.Makinson 1228) NSW Herbarium
Endangered NSW (as Astrotricha sp. Wallagaraugh). 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.
Vulnerable Vic (as Astrotricha sp. 5).
NSW Threatened Species profile: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=20053 (accessed 3 January, 2021)
PlantNET description: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Astrotricha~sp.+Wallagaraugh+(R.O.Makinson+1228) (accessed 3 January, 2021)
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