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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Euphorbiaceae
Beyeria lechenaultii

Citation: Baillon, Adansonia 6:307 (1866).

Synonymy: Hemistemma lechenaultii DC., Reg. Veg. Syst. Nat. 1:414 (1817); Beyeriopsis latifolia Muell.-Arg. in A. DC., Prod. 15, 2:200 (1866); Beyeria latifolia (Muell.-Arg.)Baillon, Adansonia 6:304 (1866); Calyptrostigma ledifolium Klotzsch in Lehm., Pl. Preiss. 1:176 (1845); Beyeria lechenaultii (DC.)Baillon var. ledifolia (Klotzsch)Grün., Pflanzenr. 58:70 (1913); Beyeria ledifolia (Klotzsch)Sonder, Linnaea 28:565 (1857); Beyeria lechenaultii (DC.)Baillon var. rosmarinoides Baillon, Adansonia 6:305 (1866); Beyeria opaca sensu Benth., Fl. Aust. 6:65 (1873), partly, non F. Muell.; Beyeria opaca F. Muell. var. linearis Benth., Fl. Aust. 6:65 (1873); Beyeria viscosa F. Muell., Fragm. Phyt. Aust. 1:230 (1859), partly, non (Labill.)Miq. , Beyeria leschenaultii, Hemistema lechenaultii

Common name: Pale turpentine bush, felted wallaby-bush.

Description:
Green sticky dioecious shrubs, branches ascending, 50-150cm high, slender, with viscid angles and lines of white pubescence between; leaves very variable, linear to lanceolate, 5-40 (commonly 9-20) x 1-7 mm, obtuse, truncate or rounded at the summit, attenuated into a distinct petiole 1-2 mm long, margins more or less recurved, shiny and green above, white-tomentose beneath except on the narrow conspicuous midrib, the lateral veins obscure; calyx with 5 overlapping glabrous sticky lobes, without petals; bracts triangular, to 0.5 mm long, brown, leathery, sticky.

Male flowers in groups of 1-3 in the leaf axils, on slender more or less sticky peduncles 1-6 mm long; lobes rotate, ovate, 1-2 mm long, unequal, light-green to yellow or white, reddened in parts, pubescent at the base, more or less glutinous; stamens 13-30, on a narrow disc; anthers longer than or as long as broad; female flowers subsessile, calyx attenuated into an angled peduncle 1-1.5 mm long; calyx lobes 5, enclosing the ovary apart from the stigma, white-pubescent; ovary heavily covered on top with sticky resin; stigmas 3 broad recurved flaps forming a 3-lobed cup appressed to the ovary.

capsule ovoid or globular, 3-7 mm long, borne in persistent perianth lobes, green, glabrous, with 3 l-seeded carpels on peduncles 1.3-3 mm wide at the apex; seed oblong, 3-4 x 2-2.5 mm, shiny, brown mottled dark, to dark-brown; caruncle yellow, pyramidal, cup-like, more than half of the diam. of the seed.

image of FSA2_Beyeria_lec.jpg Beyeria lechenaultii twig of male plant, male flower, twig of female plant, female flower, fruit and seed.
Image source: fig 398a in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 454; Costermans (1981) Native trees and shrubs of south-eastern Australia, pp. 210 & 211.

Distribution:  Commonly along the coast forms a low shrub layer or scattered through the mallees in ranges. May be locally common along roadsides and in areas receiving extra water. Not observed to be grazed.

S.Aust.: NU, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: from April but generally Sept. — Nov.


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

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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