Bertya rotundifolia
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
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| image = Bertya rotundifolia.jpg
| image_caption = In the Australian National Botanic Gardens
| genus = Bertya
| species = rotundifolia
| authority = F.Muell.{{cite web |title=Bertya rotundifolia |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/115084 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=9 May 2025}}
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Bertya rotundifolia, commonly known as Kangaroo Island bertya,{{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=234–235 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/281467#page/57/mode/1up |access-date=5 May 2025}} is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae and is endemic to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It is a monoecious, sometimes dioecious shrub, with egg-shaped or round leaves, and more or less sessile flowers borne singly in leaf axils.
Description
Bertya rotundifolia is a monoecious or sometimes dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of up to {{cvt|4|m}}. Its branchlets are densely covered with white, star-shaped hairs at first, later glabrous. The leaves are egg-shaped or round, {{cvt|5–10|mm}} long and {{cvt|3–8|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|1.4–2.5|mm}} long. The upper surface of the leaves are green, and the lower surface white and densely covered with star-shaped hairs.
The flowers are borne singly in leaf axils on a peduncle {{cvt|0.5–0.8|mm}} long and there are four to eight narrowly egg-shaped to egg-shaped bracts, the outer bracts {{cvt|1.1–2.0|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.7–1.5|mm}} wide, the inner bracts slightly shorter and narrower. Male flowers are sessile with five brown egg-shaped to elliptic sepal lobes {{cvt|1.5–3|mm}} long and {{cvt|1.3–2.2|mm}} wide and 18 to 25 stamens. Female flowers are more or less sessile, the five light yellowish green sepal lobes narrowly egg-shaped, {{cvt|1.5–2.2|mm}} long, {{cvt|0.7–1.5|mm}} wide and there are no petals. The ovary is nearly spherical about {{cvt|1.5|mm}} long and wide and densely covered with star-shaped hairs, the style about {{cvt|0.3–0.5|mm}} long with three spreading red limbs {{cvt|1.6–2.2|mm}} long, each with two or three lobes {{cvt|1.2–1.6|mm}} long. Flowering has been observed in February, from May to October and in December and the seeds are mottled light brown {{cvt|4.3–5.5|mm}} long and {{cvt|2.5–3.8|mm}} wide.{{cite web |title=Bertya rotundifolia |url=https://spapps.environment.sa.gov.au/SeedsOfSA/speciesinformation.html?rid=668 |publisher=Seeds of South Australia |access-date=10 May 2025}}
Taxonomy
Bertya rotundifolia was first formally described in 1863 by Ferdinand von Mueller in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected near the Cygnet River on Kangaroo Island by Frederick George Waterhouse.{{cite web |title=Bertya rotundifolia |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/549388|publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=9 May 2025}}{{cite book |last1=von Mueller |first1=Ferdinand |title=Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae |volume=4 |date=1863 |publisher=Victorian Government Printer |location=Melbourne |page=34 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/7221#page/36/mode/1up |access-date=10 May 2025}} The specific epithet (rotundifolia) means 'round- or circular-leaved'.{{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=267 |edition=3rd}}
Distribution and habitat
References
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Category:Plants described in 1863