Asystasia sp. Newcastle Bay (L.J.Brass 18671)

Provisional HISPID phrase name.

Stem ca. 4-angled, clothed in white hairs.

Leaf blades 20-45 x 15-28 mm, upper and lower surfaces clothed in hairs. Petioles 3-15 mm long, narrowly winged, clothed in hairs.

Calyx lobes shortly fused at the base, lobes narrowly triangular to linear, 6-8 x 0.8-1 mm, clothed in long pale hairs. Corolla tube bell-shaped, 13-14 mm long, upper two lobes fused towards the apex, 7-8 x 6 mm, lateral lobes ca. 7 x 5 mm, lower lip 7-8 x 9 mm, mauve with purple markings. Anthers ca. 1.5 mm long, filaments ca. 7 mm long, Ovary ca. 2 x 1 mm, base surrounded by a cream to yellow shallow cup-like disk. Style slender, 9-11 mm long. Stigma small, globular and terminal.

Fruits 13-14 x 3.5-4 mm, brown and hairy when ripe. Seeds 3-4 per fruit, each seed flat, 3-4 mm diam. Testa surface ornate with raised decorations particularly towards the margin.

Cotyledons orbicular, ca. 3 mm diam.

Occurs in NEQ, in the Bakers Blue Mountain and Mt. Molloy area. Altitudinal range from 400m. Grows in margin of evergreen and deciduous vine thickets on steep bolder strewn slopes.

Plants are seasonally deciduous, dying back to perennial rootstock [pers.comm. Garry Sankowsky, 2009].