Beyeria lechenaultii

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Pale Turpentine Bush

Conservation status: . . .

Etymology:   

• The specific epithet, lechenaultii, honours the French botanist, Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de La Tour

Flowers

• The male flowers are found in groups of one to three, on a sticky stalk which is 1–6 mm long

• The sepals of the male flowers are plus or minus sticky

• The female flowers are solitary on whitish stalks which lengthen when in fruit

• The sepals of the female flowers are about 2 mm long and whitish

• The stigma has 3 broad recurved (curved backwards) lobes at its base

• It flowers in spring

Fruit:                            

• The capsule is ovoid to globose, and the stigma persists

• It usually has three seeds which are about 5 mm long and reddish-brown

Leaves:         

• Its leaves are oblong to linear, and the margins are sometimes recurved

• The lower surfaces are woolly except on the midrib

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A sticky shrub which grows up to 1.5 m high

Habitat:   

• In New South Wales it is usually an understorey shrub in mallee communities

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to Australia

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • It was first described in 1817 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle as Hemistemma lechenaultii, using a specimen collected on St Francis Island, South Australia 

  • In 1866 Henri Ernest Baillon assigned the species to the genus, Beyeria

• Uses

  • The Noongar people of southwest Western Australia drank decoctions of the leaves to treat tuberculosis and fevers

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyeria_lechenaultii (2024)