''Pomaderris oraria'', commonly known as Bassian dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to south-eastern Australia. It is a compact shrub with hairy branchlets, hairy, elliptic leaves and

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s of hairy, greenish to cream-coloured or crimson-tinged flowers.

Description

''Pomaderris oraria'' is a compact shrub that typically grows to a height of up to , and has many branchlets with soft greyish to rust-coloured, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped, the size depending on subspecies, with densely hairy stipules about long at the base, but that fall off as the leaf develops. The upper surface of the leaves is covered with bristly or felt-like hairs, the lower surface densely covered with woolly white, star-shaped hairs. The flowers are borne on the ends of branchlets or in leaf axils in

s about as long as the leaves, each flower on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long. The flowers are greenish to cream-coloured or tinged with crimson and densely covered with soft, star-shaped hairs. The size of the petal-like

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s varies with subspecies and there are no petals. Flowering occurs in October and November and the fuit is a dry capsule about long.

Taxonomy

''Pomaderris oraria'' was first formally described in 1858 by

Siegfried Reissek Siegfried Reissek (11 April 1819 in Teschen – 9 November 1871 in Vienna) was an Austrian naturalist and botanist who specialized in spermatophytes. He is known for his studies involving plant anatomy and histology. From 1837 to 1841 he was ...

in the journal ''Linnaea: Ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange'' from an unpublished description by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

. The type specimens were collected b
Charles Stuart
in Tasmania. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''oraria'') means "pertaining to the coast". In 1990,

Neville Grant Walsh Neville Grant Walsh (born 1956) has worked at the National Herbarium of Victoria from 1977. Together with Don Foreman, he authored the first volume of ''Flora of Victoria'', authoring a further two with Timothy John Entwisle, Timothy Entwisle. wh ...

described two subspecies of ''P. oraria'' in the journal '' Muelleria'', and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

: * ''Pomaderris oraria'' subsp. ''calcicola'' N.G.Walsh that has leaves up to long and sepals long and wide; * ''Pomaderris oraria'' F.Muell. ex Reissek subsp. ''oraria'' that has leaves mostly long and sepals long and wide.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''oraria'' grows in near-coastal scrub in deep sand between Cape Paterson and Ninety Mile Beach in eastern Victoria and Badger Head and near Wingaroo on Flinders Island in Tasmania. Subspecies ''calcicola'' grows on limestone soils where it is often dominant in shrubland in a few locations in eastern Victoria including the Mitchell River National Park.

Conservation status

Subspecies ''oraria'' is listed as "rare" under the Tasmanian Government ''

Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 The ''Threatened Species Protection Act 1995'' (TSP Act), is an act of the Parliament of Tasmania that provides the statute relating to conservation of flora and fauna. Its long title is An Act to provide for the protection and management of th ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7227198 oraria Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 1858