Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Tetratheca pilosa
Common name
Hairy Pink-bells, Pink-eyed Susan
Family
Elaeocarpaceae
Where found
subsp. latifolia: South from Bodalla. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands.
subsp. pilosa: Coast and ranges just south of the Victorian border. A single collection on the tablelands near the Tuross River east of Numeralla in 1971.
Notes
Shrub to 0.6 m tall or sprawling. Stems cylindrical or with longitudinal ridges, giving a 4-angled appearance, often with scattered minute hairs, longer wart-based hairs, and bristles, sometimes with short glandular hairs. Leaves alternating up the stems, opposite each other, or whorled, 0.2-1.5 cm long, 1-5 mm wide, curved in cross section, upper surface hairy and warty, lower surface hairless or with a few hairs on the midrib, tips blunt or pointed, straight or curved, margins flat to closely rolled down. Flowers pink to deep mauve-pink or white, with 4 petals each 3–12 mm long. Sepals falling early. Flower stalks and sepals with non-glandular hairs. Flowers single or paired, on stalks 4-9 mm long. Flowers Winter-Spring.
Family was Tremandraceae.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Tetratheca~pilosa (accessed 24 April, 2021)
This description notes that papers published in 2005 and 2006 regard the subspecific ranking as artifical. However, the subspecies names are accepted by the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (accessed 24 April, 2021)
subsp. latifolia: Leaves alternating up the stems, opposite each other or whorled, usually more than 1.5 mm wide, margins flat, curved down, or loosely rolled down, particularly near the tip; ovary usually with long, hollow, shining hairs.
VICFLORA description: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/a9707878-f752-4725-ada4-15388eb1fdf2 (accessed 24 April, 2021)
subsp. pilosa: Leaves mostly alternating up the stems, usually less than 1.5 mm wide, margins tightly rolled; ovary hairless or hairy usually with short and glandular hairs
Presumed extinct 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: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=20239 (accessed 24 April, 2021)
VICFLORA description: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/25b433f6-14cb-4d52-81b8-3e20678bb705 (accessed 24 April, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
