Species profile—Bertya granitica
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Euphorbiaceae → Bertya granitica
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Euphorbiaceae
- Scientific name
- Bertya granitica Halford & R.J.F.Hend.
- WildNet taxon ID
- 26129
- Alternate name(s)
- granite hill bertya-shrub
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Endangered
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
- Endangered
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- Status annotated by author (Halford)
- Description
- Bertya granitica is a monoecious or rarely dioecious shrub with extensive branching growing up to 1 m tall. The young shoots and flowers buds are viscid. The branchlets are angular, becoming terete with age, glabrous or with sparse stellate hairs on the young shoots. The leaves are petiolate, spirally alternate, ascending to spreading. The petiole is plano-convex, 0.5-1.2 mm long, glabrous or with stellate hairs. The lamina is linear, 20-45 mm long and 1.3-3 mm wide, with the adaxial surface bright green with sparse covering of stellate hairs when young. The abaxial surface is white and densely covered by sessile stellate hairs and simple glandular hairs. The lamina margin is recurved or revolute, and the apex is subacute to obtuse, gland apiculate.
The inflorescences are mostly a single flowers or sometimes umbelliform with 2 flowers. The peduncles are 0.3-1.5 mm long. There are 3-7 persistent bracts which are narrowly ovate to ovate, 1.9-2.8 mm long. The male flowers are sessile with five sepal lobes which are yellowish coloured, elliptic, 3.4-4.5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, with 40-50 stamens. The female flowers are sessile with five sepal lobes which are yellow-green in colour, 3-5 mm long in flower, up to 9mm long in fruit. The petals are rudimentary, up to 0.5 mm long and 0.3 mm wide. The capsules are ovoid, 8.1-9 mm long and 4.5-5.0 mm wide, glabrous or scattered with stellate hairs, usually containing one seed and the sepal lobes are persistent. Seeds are obloid, up to 6.5-6.7 mm long by 3.6-3.7 mm wide and 3.0-3.1 mm across, brown with a fleshy cream caruncle (Halford and Henderson, 2002).
B. granitica is most closely related to B. pinifolia but differs in its shorter and proportionally broader leaves, its generally larger female calyx lobes, its larger capsules and its larger seeds. B. granitica is also similar to B. recurvata and B. gummifera but differs in leaf shape and the appearance of the calyx lobes (Halfordand Henderson, 2002). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Bertya granitica is restricted to Beeron National Park near Mundubbera, in the Burnett district of south-eastern Queensland (Halford and Henderson 2002; Queensland Herbarium, 2012). It is known from approximately eight populations, and the species has a range of approximately 8 km (DSEWPC, 2012; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -25.9639734, 151.2884115
-25.9958323, 151.3510435 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's confirmed records
- Habitat
- Bertya granitica grows in shallow, sandy soils on exposed granite outcrops. Soils are weakly acidic and dark in colour due to high organic content. Surrounding vegetation is predominantly open forest or open woodland with an open to sparse shrub layer. In the upper stratum, co-dominant species include Eucalyptus exserta, Corymbia petalophylla and Eucalyptus dura, with Acacia grandifolia, Allocasuarina inophloia and Callitris endlicheri occurring occasionally. The understorey is diverse in composition and structure. Much of the area is dominated by Triodia pungens. Other frequent species are Leptospermum polygalifolium, Xanthorrhoea johnsonii, Acacia eremophiloides, Cleistochloa rigida, Pomax umbellata (Leverington et al. 2003; Queensland Herbarium, 2012). Other associated species include Corymbia petalophylla, Eucalyptus apothalassica and Lysicarpus angustifolius (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Behaviour
- The species has low genetic diversity and its genetic profile suggests that it has been geographically isolated from near relatives and has developed in isolation, possibly during the Quaternary period. Very little is known about the ecology of Bertya granitica (Leverington et al. 2003).
There appears to be a close relationship between seedling recruitment and fire (Leverington et al. 2003). - Reproduction
- Flowering of Bertya granitica has been recorded in August and September, fruits in October (Halford and Henderson, 2002). There appears to be a close relationship between seedling recruitment and fire (Leverington et al. 2003).
- Threatening processes
- Bertya granitica is conserved in Beeron National Park. Inappropriate fire regimes and stochastic events may threatened this species (DSEWPC, 2012).
- Status notes
- Bertya granitica is listed as Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999 and Endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992.
- Management recommendations
- There are no current management recommendations documented within the literature.
- References
- Bostock, P.D. and Holland, A.E. (eds) (2010). Census of the Queensland Flora 2010. Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2012). Bertya granitica in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Accessed 18/01/2012. http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat.
Halford, D.A. and Henderson, R.J.F. (2002). Studies in Euphorbiaceae A.L.Juss. sens. lat. 3. A revision of Bertya Planch. (Ricinocarpeae Mull.Arg., Bertyinae Mull.Arg.). Austrobaileya 6 (2): 206-208.
Leverington, A., R. Edgar and G. Gordon (2003). Multi-species recovery plan for Acacia eremophiloides, Acacia grandifolia, Acacia porcata, Bertya granitica and Newcastelia velutina 2003-2007. Page (s) 17. Qld Parks and Wildlife Service. Qld Environmental Protection Agency.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 17/01/2012. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (17/01/2012)
Other resources
- Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT)
- The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
- Atlas of Living Australia
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=26129.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
