''Teucrium puberulum'', commonly known as red berry stick plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savo ...

, 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 els ...

to inland areas of eastern Australia. It is an erect shrub covered with star-shaped hairs, and with linear to lance-shaped leaves, greenish-white flowers and reddish fruit.

Description

''Teucrium puberulum'' is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of and is covered with star-shaped hairs. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, linear to lance-shaped, long, wide and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

with the edges turned downwards. The flowers are sessile and arranged in upper leaf axils with leafy bracts long. The five

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 ...

s are long and the petals are greenish-white long. Flowering occurs in spring and summer and the fruit is a reddish

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part ( exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kerne ...

, in diameter.

Taxonomy

This germander was first formally described in 1883 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 Vic ...

who gave it the name ''Spartothamnus junceus'' var. ''puberulus'' in the ''Southern Science Record''. In 1889 he elevated it to a species, ''Spartothamnus puberulus''. In 1916,

Joseph Maiden Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...

Ernst Betche Daniel Ludwig Ernst Betche (31 December 1851, in Potsdam – 28 June 1913, in Sydney) was a German-Australian horticulturist and botanist. His mother died at his birth and he was of delicate constitution all his life. His father was sufficiently ...

assigned it to the genus, ''

Spartothamnella ''Teucrium'' is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, commonly known as germanders. Plants in this genus are perennial plant, perennial herbaceous plant, herbs or shrubs, with branches that a ...

'', and the plant became ''Spartothamnella puberula''. In 2016,

Stefan Kattari Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...

and Christian Bräuchler changed the name to ''Teucrium puberulum'' in the journal ''

Taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

''Teucrium puberulum'' grows in mallee and grassy woodland in inland areas between

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits unde ...

in Queensland and

Condobolin Condobolin is a town in the west of the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, on the Lachlan River. At the , Condobolin had a population of 3,486. History Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Wiradjuri ...

in New South Wales.

References

External links

''Teucrium puberulum'' occurrence data
from

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q65950448, from2=Q15367066, from3=Q113751817 puberulum Lamiales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1882 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller