Bertya dimerostigma

Bertya dimerostigma is a monoecious or sometimes dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|2|m}} and has many glabrous, mostly sticky branches. Its leaves are strap-like or narrowly oblong, {{cvt|6–10|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.9–1.4|mm}} wide and sessile or on a short petiole. The upper surface of the leaves is green and glabrous, the lower surface white and densely covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are borne singly in leaf axils on a peduncle {{cvt|0.5–2|mm}} long. There are five or six oblong or narrowly egg-shaped bracts {{cvt|1–4|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.5–0.9|mm}} wide. Male flowers are sessile with five red egg-shaped or elliptic sepal lobes {{cvt|2.8–5.1|mm}} long and {{cvt|2.2–2.7|mm}} wide and have about 18 to 46 stamens. Female flowers are sessile, the five sepal lobes egg-shaped to broadly egg-shaped, {{cvt|1.5–3.5|mm}} long and {{cvt|1.5–1.8|mm}} wide. Female flowers usually have no petals, the ovary elliptic, and glabrous, the style about {{cvt|0.2|mm}} long with three spreading yellowish-green limbs {{cvt|1.1–1.5|mm}} long, each with two to four lobes {{cvt|0.9–1.1|mm}} long. Flowering has been recorded mostly between June and November, and the fruit is an oval capsule {{cvt|6–7|mm}} long and {{cvt|3.2–3.5|mm}} wide with a single elliptic or oblong, light brown seed mottled with dark brown, {{cvt|3.0–4.5|mm}} long and {{cvt|2.3–2.4|mm}} wide with a yellowish-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=199–200 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/281467#page/28/mode/1up |access-date=19 February 2025}}{{cite web |last1=Halford |first1=David A. |editor-last1=Moon |editor-first1=Chris |editor-last2=Orchard |editor-first2=Anthony E. |title=Bertya dimerostigma |url=https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Bertya%20dimerostigma |publisher=Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. |access-date=11 March 2025}}

Bertya dimerostigma was first formally described in 1882 by Ferdinand von Mueller in his Southern Science Record from specimens collected near Victoria Spring by Ernest Giles.{{cite web |title=Bertya dimerostigma |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/548814 |publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=11 March 2025}}{{cite journal |last1=von Mueller |first1=Ferdinand |title=Definitions of some new Australian plants. |journal=Southern Science Record |date=1882 |volume=2 |issue=5 |page=98 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/131344#page/104/mode/1up |access-date=11 March 2025}} The specific epithet (dimerostigma) means 'double stigma'.{{cite book |last1=George |first1=Alex |last2=Sharr |first2=Francis |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2021 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=183|edition=3rd}}

This species of Bertya occurs in the south-west of Western Australia between Merredin, Hyden and Zanthus and is found in hummock grasslands, in mallee with a tall shrub understorey, and open woodland, growing on sands often overlaying clays.{{FloraBase|name=Bertya dimerostigma|id=4591}}

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dimerostigma

Category:Flora of Western Australia

Category:Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller

Category:Plants described in 1882