Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Elatostema reticulatum

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

Flowering stem with male flower heads. Photographer Don Wood, Budawang National Park

Plant. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Minnamurra National Park near Kiama

Common name

Rainforest Spinach

Family

Urticaceae

Where found

Rainforest and wet forest, moist rock faces, and along streams. Ranges north from west of Batemans Bay. Coastal north of Nowra.

Notes

Perennial herb to 0.6 m high. Stems fleshy, often rooting at the base, hairy with appressed hairs. Leaves alternating up the stems, mostly 7–18 cm long, 20–60 mm wide, margins toothed, upper surface more or less hairless, lower surface hairy, base with one side much longer than the other. Leaves edible. Male flowers greenish to transparent, about 5 mm in diameter, with 4 or 5 distinct segments. Female flowers minute, usually with 3 'petals'. Flowers in dense heads subtended by bracts. Male flower heads white or yellowish, 12–25 mm in diameter, stalked. Female flower heads about 9 mm in diameter, more or less unstalked.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Elatostema~reticulatum  (accessed 12 January, 2021)