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 Astelia Family Asteliaceae

Description: Tufted dioecious herbs, perennial, rhizomatous; aerial parts usually covered with silvery scales, sometimes woolly.

Leaves 3-ranked, linear to lanceolate, keeled; sheath closed at base.

Inflorescence a terminal panicle; branches subtended by leafy or membranous spathes; bracts membranous. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic. Tepals 6, free or basally fused. Stamens 6, shorter than tepals; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits, introrse; staminodes sometimes present in female flowers. Ovary superior, 1-locular with parietal placentas or 3-locular with axile placentas; stigmas 3; reduced ovary sometimes present in male flowers.

Fruit a berry surrounded by persistent tepals; seeds few–numerous, black.


Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 31 species, in and around the Pacific, with 1 species in Reunion and Mauritius and 1 species in the Falkland Is. Australia: 3 species (endemic), N.S.W., Vic., Tas.

Text by G. Harden; Kerry Gibbons, 26 Apr. 2023
Taxon concept: Harden Fl of NSW. Distribution and occurrence: Kew Plants of the World Online; Australian Plant Census [both accessed 24 Apr. 2023].

 Key to the species 
1Male panicles compact, mostly hidden by leaves; anthers more than 1 mm long; berry orange-yellow, 3-locular, 3-lobed; old leaf bases tomentose with short hairsAstelia psychrocharis
Male panicles open, exserted; anthers less than 1 mm long; berry red, 1-locular, not lobed; old leaf bases silky with hair-like scalesAstelia alpina

  Privacy | Copyright | Disclaimer | About PlantNET | Cite PlantNET