Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Xanthosia stellata
Common name
Star xanthosia
Family
Apiaceae
Where found
Forest on sandstone. Blue Mountains south to Morton National Park. Occasionally in the Sydney area.
Notes
Shrub to 0.2 m high or scrambling. Stems and leaves sparsely stellate-hairy (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, compound, with 3 leaflets, or 3-lobed, the leaflets/lobes more or less the same size as each other, 0.2–1.2 cm long, 2–10 mm wide, upper surface sparsely stellate-hairy, lower surface off-white to light green. Individual flowers with 5 white petals 1.1–1.3 mm long, and 5 green sepals each 1.3–1.5 mm long, in clusters of 1-3 flowers, looking like individual flowers. 2-3 petal-like bracteoles below the clusters, yellow becoming reddish, 4–6 mm long. Flower clusters single or paired. Flowers Nov.–Dec.
Vulnerable Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Xanthosia~stellata (accessed 8 February, 2021)
Description above partly taken from Hart, J.M. & Henwood, M.J., (2000) Systematics of the Xanthosia pilosa complex (Apiaceae: Hydrocotyloideae). Australian Systematic Botany. 13(2): 252-256, Figs 8, 9
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