Bertya mollissima
Bertya mollissima is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is a slender shrub with linear to oblong or strap-like leaves, separate male and female flowers on a short peduncle, and hairy, oval capsules.
Description
Bertya mollissima is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and is covered with woolly hairs, the young growth and flowers with gold-coloured, woolly hairs. The leaves are linear to oblong or strap-like, long and wide with the edges rolled downwards, the upper surface dark green, the lower surface paler, the midrib prominent. Separate male and female flowers are borne on a peduncle long, although there are often more of one gender than the other. Male flowers have five petal-like, oblong to lance-shaped sepals about long and wide and 35 to 65 stamens long. Female flowers are sessile, with densely hairy, narrowly egg-shaped to egg-shaped sepals long, and a densely hairy ovary with a two- or three-branched style. Flowering mostly occurs from September to December, and the fruit is narrowly elliptic or narrowly oval, long with a single seed.
Taxonomy
Bertya mollissima was first formally described in 1941 by William Faris Blakely in Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium from specimens collected in the Warrumbungles in 1899. The specific epithet means 'very soft'.
Distribution and habitat
This species of Bertya grows on rocky slopes and montain tops in open heath or open eucalypt woodland, in Mount Kaputar, the Warrumbungle Ranges, the Liverpool Range and in the Scone and Singleton districts.
Conservation status
Bertya mollissima 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.