Bertya brownii
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Speciesbox
| status =
| status_system =
| status_ref =
| image = Bertya brownii.jpg
| image_caption = Male flowers in the ANBG
| genus = Bertya
| species = brownii
| authority = S.Moore{{cite web |title=Bertya brownii |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/114669 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=16 February 2025}}
| range_map = Bertya brownii DistMap1.png
| range_map_caption = Occurrence data from the Australasian Virtual Herbarium
| synonyms = Bertya astrotricha Blakely
}}
Bertya brownii is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is a slender shrub with narrowly elliptic to elliptic or oblong leaves, flowers borne singly in leaf axils or on the ends of branches, and narrowly oval capsules with a dark brown seed.
Description
Bertya brownii is a monoecious shrub that typically grows to a height of {{cvt|1–3|m}} and is covered with rust-coloured, star-shaped hairs. Its leaves are narrowly elliptic to elliptic or egg-shaped to oblong, mostly {{cvt|19–54|mm}} long and {{cvt|9–17|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|2.2–4.5|mm}} long. The flowers are borne singly in leaf axils or on the ends of branches on a peduncle {{cvt|8–18|mm}} long. There are four to six narrowly egg-shaped to linear bracts at the base of the peduncle. Male flowers are sessile or on a pedicel up to {{cvt|1|mm}} long with petal-like segments {{cvt|4–5|mm}} long and five egg-shaped sepal lobes {{cvt|3.1–5.6|mm}} long and {{cvt|2.0–3.3|mm}} wide. Male flowers have 56 to 94 stamens fused at the base. Female flowers are borne on a pedicel {{cvt|0.5–2.5|mm}} long, the five sepal lobes light green and narrowly triangular, {{cvt|2.2–3.0|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.5–0.8|mm}} wide. There are no petals, the ovary is densely hairy at first and the style is {{cvt|0.1–0.3|mm}} long with three spreading red limbs {{cvt|1.9–5.2|mm}} long with lobes {{cvt|1.5–4|mm}} long. Flowering has been recorded in most months, and the fruit is a narrowly oval capsule {{cvt|9.0–9.5|mm}} long and {{cvt|3.5–4.3|mm}} wide with a single oblong, dark brown seed {{cvt|5.5–6.5|mm}} long and {{cvt|2.7–3.3|mm}} wide with a creamy-white caruncle.{{cite journal |last1=Halford |first1=David A. |last2=Henderson |first2=Rodney John Francis |title=Studies in Euphorbiaceae A.L.Juss. sens. lat. 3. A revision of Bertya Planch. (Ricinocarpeae Mull.Arg., Bertyinae Mull.Arg.). |journal=Austrobaileya |date=2002 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=193–195 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/281467#page/22/mode/1up |access-date=17 February 2025}}{{cite web |last1=James |first1=Teresa A. |last2=Harden |first2=Gwen J. |title=Bertya brownii |url=https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Bertya~brownii |publisher=Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney |access-date=17 February 2025}}
Taxonomy
Bertya brownii was first formally described in 1905 by Spencer Le Marchant Moore in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign from specimens collected by Robert Brown.{{cite web |title=Bertya brownii |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/548761 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=16 February 2025}}{{cite journal |last1=Le Marchant Moore |first1=Spencer |title=Alabastra Diversa - Part XII: Sertulum Asiatico-Australiense. |journal=Journal of Botany, British and Foreign |date=1905 |volume=43 |pages=147–148 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/108522#page/177/mode/1up |access-date=16 February 2025}}
Distribution and habitat
This species of Bertya is found in deep, moist sandstone gullies in rainforest and eucalypt forest in coastal and near-coastal areas of New South Wales between Wauchope and Batemans Bay.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q15386365}}
Category:Taxa named by Spencer Le Marchant Moore