Asterolasia elegans

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms  > Eudicots > Rosids >  Sapindales > Rutaceae  asterolasia  elegans

Other links:     

Common name:                ...

Conservation status:  Endangered

• Is only known from seven populations over a distance of 37 km and is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the New South Wales Government Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016

• The main threats to the species include inappropriate fire regimes, habitat loss, weed invasion and grazing by feral animals and domestic livestock

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are arranged singly or in umbels of up to nine in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets, each flower on a pedicel 4–18 mm long

• The petals are white, elliptical, 8–14 mm long, densely covered with white, star-shaped hairs on the back and there are ten stamens

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• The leaves are lance-shaped to elliptical, 40–130 mm long and 9–25 mm wide on a petiole 5–15 mm long

• The leaves are covered with white and rusty-red star-shaped hairs, densely so on the lower surface

Stem & branches: 

• Densely covered with woolly, rusty-red, star-shaped hairs

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An erect, spindly shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–3 m 

Habitat:   

• Moist places on hillsides in forests 

Distribution:                  

• North of Sydney

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Asterolasia elegans was first formally described in 1990 by Lyn McDougall and Marianne F. Porteners in the journal Telopea 

  • Specimens where collected by McDougall near Maroota in 1989

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterolasia_elegans (2023)