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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Rubiaceae
Opercularia varia

Citation: Hook. f., London J. Bot. 6:466 (1847).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Variable stinkweed.

Description:
Perennial subshrubs, monoecious, with spreading branches to 25 cm long, produced from one short main stem, more or less hairy; leaves sessile, lanceolate, sometimes ovate or linear, 3-18 x 1.5-6 mm, acute, glabrous to densely hairy, usually with strongly recurved margins; stipules with 1 broadly triangular lobe and 1 smaller point on either side of it.

Inflorescence with 2-7 flowers basally fused into a hemispherical head on a peduncle 0-7 mm long (shorter than the subtending leaves) and with apparently dichotomous branching from the same node on the lower inflorescences; calyx lobes usually broadly triangular and usually more or less hairy; anthers 1.5-2 mm long.

Fruit dehiscing by an oblique split of the lid so as to form a star-shaped cavity after all the seeds have been shed; seeds coffee-bean-shaped more or less rugose on both surfaces, brown.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: SL, KI, SE.   Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: June — Oct.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: A variable species with sometimes lineardanceolate leaves but which is distinguished from O. turpis by its monoecious plants and apparently dichotomous branching from the same node on which the lower inflorescences am borne. That is, the upper branches of some plants of O. varia do not have the apparently dichotomous branching. These plants usually also have some female flower heads above while flowers of other heads seem to be bisexual.

Taxonomic notes: O. varia has often also been confused with O. ovata as both species have at times glabrous lanceolate leaves, but the former is distinguished by a single basal stem, 3-7 flowers per inflorescence and smaller anthers. The few records of the species from KI have unusually short ovate leaves and are generally more densely hairy than their mainland counterparts.

Author: Not yet available


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