Elatostema reticulatum Wedd.

Weddell, H.A. (1854) Annales des Sciences Naturelles : 188. Type: Nov. Holland (Leichhard, pl. exs., n. ?).

Rainforwst Spinach

A coarse succulent and brittle straggling herb to 50 cm tall. Stems with appressed hairs, stems up to 7 mm diameter.

Leaves produced and held in one plane. Leaf blades 8-18 x 3-4.5 cm, petioles 0.2-0.4 cm long. Stipules narrowly triangular, 12-15 x 3 mm sheathing the terminal buds. Leaf blade with dense white cystoliths on upper surface, mixed with sparse long hairs on under surfacemargins uniformly toothed throughout, leaf base markedly asymmetrical Oil dots visible on the upper surface of the leaf blade as small craters.

Flowers borne in dense umbels subtended by bracts. Peduncles 3-5 cm long, pedicels ca. 4 mm long. Tepals greenish to transparent with a rib on the outer surface which extends beyond the obtuse apex. Male flowers: Flowers ca. 5 mm diam. Anthers Y-shaped, longer than wide, ca. 1 mm long, filaments ca. 3 mm long. Anthers explosively dehiscent expelling the pollen in a small cloud.

Fruit tuberculate, small 0.5 mm long.

Features not available.

Occurs in NEQ, CEQ and southwards to south eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from 110-1250 m. Grows in moist to wet shaded areas on rocks along or in creeks in rainforest, Eucalypt forest and vineforest.