Common name: Alpine Ballart
Exocarpos nanus Hook.f. APNI* 
Description: Prostrate to ascending subshrub to 1 m diam.; branchlets slender, articulate, angular-striate.
Leaves mostly opposite, scale-like, triangular, 0.5–1.0 mm long, apex obtuse, persistent.
Flowers in sessile clusters of 1–4, unisexual, yellow-green or tinged with red. Tepals 5, ± triangular, c. 0.5 mm long. Disc broadly and bluntly 5-angled. Fruiting pedicel swollen, obovoid to obconical, 2–3 mm long, dark red, edible but not particularly palatable.
Drupe ovoid, 2–3 mm long, green to red brown; tepals persistent.
Flowering: September–January
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in subalpine areas in heath and tall herbfields in the shelter of shrubs and boulders and in Sphagnum bogs; chiefly in Barrington Tops and Kosciusko districts.
NSW subdivisions: NT, ST
Other Australian states: Vic. Tas.
Text by B. Wiecek
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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