Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Eleutheranthera ruderalis (Sw.) Sch.Bip.


Weed
Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
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Leaves and flowers. © CSIRO
Flowers. © CSIRO
Flowers. © CSIRO
Herbarium speicmen. © DERM
Family

Schultz (Bipontinus), C.H. (1866) Botanische Zeitung 24: 239.

Common name

Ogiera

Stem

Herb 10-70 cm tall. Whole plant hairy. Stems and leafy twigs ribbed or 4-angled and clothed in hairs.

Leaves

Leaf blades 25-65 x 10-40 mm, petioles hairs, 4-10 mm long. Leaf blade surfaces clothed in hairs, somewhat sandpapery on both surfaces.

Flowers

Flower heads usually consist of 3-6 flowers and are subtended by 5 leafy bracts. Bracts 5-10 x 3-4 mm, lanceolate to elliptic, upper surface clothed in long white hairs. Calyx, i.e. pappus, of numerous hair-like trichomes. Corolla tube about 0.5 mm long, lobes 0.5-0.6 mm long, clothed in yellow bristles on the inner surface. Anthers black, about 0.5 mm long, filaments about 1 mm long. Ovary about 1 mm long, clothed in white hairs. Stigma bifid.

Fruit

Fruits about 4 mm long, surface warty. Pappus very short. Seeds black. Cotyledons about 1 mm long, much wider than the radicle.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs naturalised in NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from 10-650 m. Found in mesophyll rainforest, open Eucalyptus forest, notophyll vine forest, Eucalyptus woodland and places of agriculture.

Natural History & Notes

Weed of agriculture and disturbed places.

Synonyms
Melampodium ruderale Sw., Flora Indiae Occidentalis 3: 1372(1806), Type: Jamaica. Habitat in ruderatis Jamaicae australioris.
RFK Code
4027
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