Bertya brownii

Bertya brownii
Male flowers the ANBG
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Euphorbiaceae
Genus:	Bertya
Species:	B. brownii
Binomial name
Bertya brownii S.Moore [1]
Occurrence data from the Australasian Virtual Herbarium
Synonyms [1]
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 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) and is covered with rust-coloured, star-shaped hairs. Its leaves are narrowly elliptic to elliptic or egg-shaped to oblong, mostly 19–54 mm (0.75–2.13 in) long and 9–17 mm (0.35–0.67 in) wide on a petiole 2.2–4.5 mm (0.087–0.177 in) long. The flowers are borne singly in leaf axils or on the ends of branches on a peduncle 8–18 mm (0.31–0.71 in) 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 1 mm (0.039 in) long with petal-like segments 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) long and five egg-shaped sepal lobes 3.1–5.6 mm (0.12–0.22 in) long and 2.0–3.3 mm (0.079–0.130 in) wide. Male flowers have 56 to 94 stamens fused at the base. Female flowers are borne on a pedicel 0.5–2.5 mm (0.020–0.098 in) long, the five sepal lobes light green and narrowly triangular, 2.2–3.0 mm (0.087–0.118 in) long and 0.5–0.8 mm (0.020–0.031 in) wide. There are no petals, the ovary is densely hairy at first and the style is 0.1–0.3 mm (0.0039–0.0118 in) long with three spreading red limbs 1.9–5.2 mm (0.075–0.205 in) long with lobes 1.5–4 mm (0.059–0.157 in) long. Flowering has been recorded in most months, and the fruit is a narrowly oval capsule 9.0–9.5 mm (0.35–0.37 in) long and 3.5–4.3 mm (0.14–0.17 in) wide with a single oblong, dark brown seed 5.5–6.5 mm (0.22–0.26 in) long and 2.7–3.3 mm (0.11–0.13 in) wide with a creamy-white caruncle. ^{[2] [3]}

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. ^{[4] [5]}

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. ^{[2] [3]}

References

1. "Bertya brownii". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
2. Halford, David A.; Henderson, Rodney John Francis (2002). "Studies in Euphorbiaceae A.L.Juss. sens. lat. 3. A revision of Bertya Planch. (Ricinocarpeae Mull.Arg., Bertyinae Mull.Arg.)". Austrobaileya. 6 (2): 193–195. Retrieved 17 February 2025.
3. James, Teresa A.; Harden, Gwen J. "Bertya brownii". Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Retrieved 17 February 2025.
4. "Bertya brownii". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
5. Le Marchant Moore, Spencer (1905). "Alabastra Diversa - Part XII: Sertulum Asiatico-Australiense". Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. 43: 147–148. Retrieved 16 February 2025.