Zieria tuberculata

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:                Warty zieria  

Conservation status:  Vulnerable

• Zieria tuberculata is listed as "Vulnerable" under the Commonwealth Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) Act and under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act

• About 900 individual plants from eight populations in an area of about 600 ha are known

• The main threats to its survival are habitat destruction caused by grazing animals and the weeds lantata (Lantana camara) and ivy (Hedera helix)

Etymology:   

• The name Zieria honours "John Zier, a Polish botanist, who assisted F.C. Ehrhart in his collection of plants of the Electorate of Hanover, 1780-83, and afterwards worked in London, where he died in 1793"

• The specific epithet (tuberculata) is a Latin word meaning "full of lumps"

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are creamy-white and are arranged in upper leaf axils in large groups of up to 200

• The groups are shorter than the leaves and each flower is 5.2–7.3 mm in diameter on a stalk 1.1–2.5 mm long

• There are four narrow triangular sepal lobes less than 1.5–2.5 mm long and four petals 2.5–4 mm long

• In common with other zierias, there are only four stamens

• Flowering occurs from late winter to spring

• Pollinated by pollen-feeding beetles and flies and by nectar-feeding flies

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• The leaves are composed of three narrow leaflets with the central one, 25–50 mm long and 2–3.5 mm wide with a stalk 4–8 mm long

• The leaflets are dull green on the upper surface, whitish and warty on the lower side 

• Leaves which are covered with star-like hairs, usually visible only with a magnifier

Roots:         

Stem & branches: 

• Has warty branches which are covered with star-like hairs, usually visible only with a magnifier

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A shrub that grows to a height of 3.5 m 

Habitat:   

• Grows in exposed, rocky outcrops on the edge of rainforest

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to a small area on the south coast of NSW

• Occurs in the Mount Gulaga area

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy 

  • Zieria tuberculata was first formally described in 2002 by James Armstrong 

  • The description was published in Australian Systematic Botany

Sources of information:

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