Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Xanthosia tridentata

Flowering stems. Photographer Don Wood, Kioloa State Forest north of Batemans Bay

Flowering stems. Photographer Tindo2, Tas

Line drawings. d. plant; joined seeds. K Maling, University of Sydney, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Common name

Rock xanthosia, Hill xanthosia

Family

Apiaceae

Where found

Open forest, woodland, heath, and shrubland. Coast, ranges, and occasionally on the tablelands.

Notes

Shrub to 0.3 m high. Branches hairy to hairless, younger parts sparsely stellate-hairy (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.6–2.3 cm long, 2–15 mm wide, base narrowed, margins more or less curved down, upper surface hairless or sparsely hairy, lower surface whitish tomentose, tips 3-5 notched. Individual flowers with 5 white to pale green petals about 1-1.5 mm long, and 5 shield-like sepals each about 1.7-3 mm long, in mostly 1–6-flowered clusters, looking like individual flowers. Bracteoles below the clusters petal-like, green or green with red tinges, 3.5–4 mm long. Flowers Aug.–Apr.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Xanthosia~tridentata (accessed 8 February, 2021)