PlantNET Home DONATE TODAY | PlantNET Home | Search NSW Flora | Contact Us  
FloraOnline
Introduction
Plant Name Search
Index Search
Spatial Search
Identification Keys
Classification
Glossary
WeedAlert
Telopea Journal
Other Data Sources
NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE Printable Page

Genus Rhytidosporum Family Pittosporaceae

Description: Small erect to prostrate shrubs.

Leaves alternate, margins entire or apically toothed.

Flowers axillary or terminal, pedicellate, solitary or few in a corymb. Sepals free. Petals lanceolate or linear, free over most or all of their length, ascending to recurved in the upper half. Stamens free; anthers shorter than the filaments. Ovary sessile, glabrous.

Fruit a dry, dehiscent capsule, ovoid or shortly cylindrical, compressed, 2- or 3-locular, loculicidally dehiscent; seeds few to several.


Distribution and occurrence: World: 4 species, endemic Australia. Australia: N.S.W., Vic., Tas., S.A.

This genus is sometimes included in Billardiera.

Text by R. O. Makinson
Taxon concept:

 Key to the species 
1Subalpine heaths and woodland habitats, above c. 800 m; aerial woody stems less than 10 cm high; extensively rhizomatous; leaves appearing densely whorled or clustered, always with adaxial leaf surface uppermost2
Non-subalpine heath and open woodland habitats, not usually above 800 m; aerial woody stems sometimes erect, 0.5–1 m high, but usually procumbent and aerial, rather than subterranean; leaves alternate or clustered into a funnel-shaped arrangement, adaxial leaf surface not always uppermost3
2Leaves mainly narrowly elliptic, 4–5 mm wide; flowers with flattened ovaries; fruit indehiscent, woody, persistentRhytidosporum alpinum
Leaves mostly narrowly obovate; flowers with globose ovaries, not flattened; fruit loculicidally dehiscent, chartaceous, not persistent
                       Back to 1
Rhytidosporum inconspicuum
3Leaves linear or very narrowly elliptic, 10–16 mm long; apex acuminate with distinct mucro; inflorescence almost sessileRhytidosporum diosmoides
Leaves narrowly obovate or angular elliptic, never linear, 5–20 mm long; apex often 3-lobed; inflorescence with flowers pedicellate
                       Back to 1
4
4Leaves alternate and 2-ranked, not stem-clasping, with adaxial surface uppermost; stems rhizomatous, prostrate, unbranched or sparingly branched, with adaxial surface uppermost; inflorescences an umbel of usually 1–6-flowered; peduncles 12–15 mmlongRhytidosporum prostratum
Leaves usually in a funnelled, stem-clasping arrangement, adaxial surface not always facing uppermost; inflorescence rarely of more than 3 flowers; plants erect to nearly 0.5 m high; stems generally above ground, rarely subterranean; leaves 2–3 mm wide
                       Back to 3
Rhytidosporum procumbens

  Privacy | Copyright | Disclaimer | About PlantNET | Cite PlantNET