Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Bertya brownii
Common name
None
Family
Euphorbiaceae
Where found
Moist gullies in forest. East from the Pacific Highway north from the Sydney area. Ranges west of Moruya. One record from Morton National Park.
Notes
Shrub to 3 m high, densely covered with rusty stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, 1–5 cm long, 5–15 mm wide, soft and brittle, upper surface dark to medium green, lower surface pale, margins finely wavy. Male and female flowers on different plants or on the same plant. Flowers with 4-5 'petals'. 'Petals' of male flowers 4–5 mm long. 'Petals' of female flowers 3–4 mm long, rigid, slightly enlarging around the seed cases. Ovary densely hairy, becoming hairless. Flowering: early spring to summer.
Intermediates occur in the Sydney region and on the South Coast between Bertya pomaderroides and Bertya brownii. upper surface of the leaves is hairless, the perianth and ovary are mostly hairless as in Bertya pomaderroides and the leaves are larger and with flatter margins as in Bertya brownii.
The note in PlantNET that giv es these facts is unchanged from that in James, T.A. & Harden, G.J. in Harden, G.J. (ed.) (2000), Euphorbiaceae. Flora of New South Wales Revised Edition 1: 417 (accessed 6 February 2021)
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Bertya~brownii (accessed 6 February 2021)
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