Description: Shrubs, glabrous or stellate-pubescent, dioecious.
Leaves alternate [or opposite], simple, coarsely toothed, sometimes 3-lobed; petiolate or sessile; stipules variable, often gland-like.
Inflorescence a terminal or leaf-opposed spike, the male elongate and interrupted, the female congested and usually few-flowered. Male flowers with 3–5 sepals c. 3 mm long; petals and disc absent; stamens numerous, filaments very short. Female flowers with 6–8 sepals in 2 whorls; petals 0; styles elongate, deeply 2-branched, red.
Capsule ± globose, 3-lobed, separating into three 2-valved fruitlets; seeds with a caruncle.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 3–5 species, endemic Australia. Australia: all mainland States.
Genus under revision, these species are closely related and may be reduced to varieties of a single species.
Text by T. A. James & G. J. Harden Taxon concept:
One species in NSW: Adriana tomentosa |
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