About Bertya tasmanica (Sond. & F.Muell.) Müll.Arg.
Bertya tasmanica (Sond. & F.Muell.) Müll.Arg. is a shrub that is most often monoecious, and sometimes dioecious. It usually grows to a maximum height of 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in). Its branchlets are densely hairy when young, and become hairless as they mature. The leaves are strap-like to linear in shape, measuring 8–32 mm (0.31–1.26 in) long and 1.2–1.6 mm (0.047–0.063 in) wide, borne on a petiole 1.0–3.1 mm (0.039–0.122 in) long. The upper leaf surface is green to greyish-green, while the lower leaf surface is white and densely covered in star-shaped hairs. Flowers are usually borne singly and are more or less sessile. Male flowers have five yellowish, egg-shaped, elliptic or oblong sepal lobes that are 2.4–5.1 mm (0.094–0.201 in) long and 2.0–3.2 mm (0.079–0.126 in) wide, and contain 15 to 55 stamens. Female flowers have five light green, narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly triangular sepal lobes with a reddish tinge, measuring 1.8–4.3 mm (0.071–0.169 in) long and 0.7–1.9 mm (0.028–0.075 in) wide, and usually do not have petals. The ovary of the female flower is elliptic, 1.3–2.2 mm (0.051–0.087 in) long and 1.1–1.7 mm (0.043–0.067 in) wide, and is densely hairy. The style is 0.1–0.6 mm (0.0039–0.0236 in) long, and usually has three spreading maroon or pale yellow limbs 1.6–2.9 mm (0.063–0.114 in) long; each of these limbs has two to four lobes 1.0–2.3 mm (0.039–0.091 in) long. Flowering time for this species varies depending on the subspecies. The seeds are light brown, 3.9–5.2 mm (0.15–0.20 in) long and 1.8–3.1 mm (0.071–0.122 in) wide. There are two recognized subspecies with distinct distributions and habitats. Bertya tasmanica subsp. vestita has a wide range extending from near Kimba in South Australia eastwards to Swan Hill in Victoria, and also occurs near Coonabarabran and in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. It grows mainly on sandplains or sand dunes in heath, shrubland, or woodland. Subspecies tasmanica grows near watercourses in heath or woodland between Bicheno and Cranbrook on the east coast of Tasmania.
