Asystasia australasica F.M.Bailey

Bailey, F.M. (1897) Queensland Agricultural Journal 1(3): 230. Type: F.M.Bailey s.n., vi. 1897, Thursday Island. Holo: BRI; Iso: K. "Thursday Island, Torres Strait. Under trees in the gullies between the hills."

Erect to spreading, much branched herb to 50 cm tall. Stems square, constricted above nodes.

Leaves opposite; petioles 3-28 mm long, shorter higher up; blades thin, ovate, to 35-116 x 11-50 mm, base attentuate, apex acuminate, margins entire.

Inflorescence racemes 2-4 cm long, terminal or rarely axillary. Bracts triangular, 1.2 mm long, bracteoles slightly smaller. Pedicel 1-2 mm long, glabrous. Calyx 5 lobes, narrow triangular, 4-6 mm long, mostly glabrous or with a tuft of hairs at apex. Corolla blue, purple or lavender, outer surface with dense cover of glandular and eglandular hairs, inside tube with sparse hairs otherwise glabrous, tube and throat 15-17 mm long, lobes 5 and more or less equal. Stamens 4, in two unequal pairs, longer of each pair just eserted. Ovary glabrous in flower or with a few glandular and eglandular hairs towards apex, becoming more densely glandular hairy with age; style 10-18 mm long, glabrous.

Capsule 15-21 mm long, moderately densely glandular hairy on outside. Two seed bearing hooks in each valve, often with only one seed., Seed ca. 3.5 mm diameter, tuberculate, flattened on sides.

Features not available.

Occurs in CYP on the islands of the Torres Strait, and recorded in NEQ from near the Annan River south of Cooktown and in Cape Melville National Park. Grows in margin of evergreen and deciduous vine thickets, and recorded from sandy flats and grassy areas behind beach and mangroves.