Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Leucopogon fletcheri

Flowers (subsp. brevisepalus). Photographer Richard Hartland, Cobungra, Vic

Flowering stems (subsp. brevisepalus). Photographer Don Wood, Black Mountain, ACT

Flowering shrubs (subsp. brevisepalus). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Namadgi National Park, ACT

Common name

A beard-heath

Family

Ericaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, and shrubland. Widespread. No coastal records south of the Sydney area.

subsp. brevisepalus:  Widespread. Rarely coastal.

subsp. fletcheri:  Sydney area and west to Newnes State Forest north of Lithgow.

Notes

Shrub to 1.8 m high. Leaf tips sharp. Fruit fleshy. Branchlets hairy to rough. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.37–1 cm long, 1–3.1 mm wide,  convex in cross section, thin, base squared off; margins entire or with minute teeth; striate-ribbed on lower surface, tips tapering to a point, with a mucro 0.5–2 mm long. Flowers white to pale pink, tubular, the tube 2.6–8 mm long, with 5 hairy lobes 2.4–3.8 mm long, hairy inside. Flowers hanging down, usually in groups of 1–3 in spikes crowded at the end of the branches. The hairs on the inside of the flowers can best be seen using a hand lens. Flowering: August–December.

Styphelia fletcheri  in VICFLORA. (accessed 26 February, 2021)

Family was Epacridaceae.

subsp. brevisepalus:  Flowers in clusters of 1–3; sepals 2–3.7 mm long; flower tube 2.6–8 mm long; ovary 0.9–1 mm long; style 3.9–7 mm long; fruit oval, widest below the middle, 3–5 mm long

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

subsp. fletcheri:  Flowers single. Sepals 3.4–4.6 mm long; flower tube 3.5–4.8 mm long; ovary 1–1.9 mm long; style 5.4–7.9 mm long; fruit ridged, oval, 4.5–5 mm long

(subsp. fletcheri) Endangered NSW. 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.

NSW Threatened Species profile with photos:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10474  (accessed 26 February, 2021)

PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Leucopogon~fletcheri (accessed 26 February, 2021)