Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Australina pusilla subsp. muelleri
Common name
Small Shade-nettle
Family
Urticaceae
Where found
Moist shady situations in forest, and moist gullies. Widespread south of the Hume Highway. No coastal records.
Notes
Perennial herb, erect to prostrate, to 0.2 m high. Young stems slightly hairy to hairy. Stems sometimes reddish. Leaves alternating up the stems, margins scalloped. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Male flowers 2-lipped, about 2 mm in diameter; in stalked clusters of 1-5. Female flowers about 1–1.5 mm long, urn-shaped, obscurely 5-toothed, stalkless, in clusters of 1–20. Flowers sometimes in mixed clusters of male and female flowers. Flowers Spring-Summer.
subsp. muelleri: Mature leaves 1.5–6.0 cm long, 10-35 mm wide, always longer than broad, with 4–6 (rarely 3) teeth on each side.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
subsp. pusilla: Leaves to 1.5 cm long, 16 mm wide, about as long as broad, with 2–3 (rarely 1 or 4) teeth on each side
Rare Vic.
PlantNET description (Australina pusilla): http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Australina~pusilla (accessed 11 January, 2021)
VICFLORA description with key to subspecies: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/c9e215b3-0e37-4922-8b5b-c4881b8f55b2 (accessed 11 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
