Pomaderris andromedifolia

Pomaderris andromedifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a shrub with lance-shaped to elliptic leaves and cream-coloured to yellow flowers.

Pomaderris andromedifolia
In Heathcote National Park
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rhamnaceae
Genus:	Pomaderris
Species:	P. andromedifolia
Binomial name
Pomaderris andromedifolia A.Cunn.[1]

Flower buds in the Australian National Botanic Gardens

Description

Pomaderris andromedifolia is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) and has its young stems covered with woolly, rust-coloured hairs. The leaves are mostly lance-shaped to elliptic, 10–50 mm (0.39–1.97 in) long and 3–15 mm (0.12–0.59 in) wide, the upper surface glabrous and the lower surface with white to rust-coloured hairs. The flowers are borne in panicles on the end of branches and are cream-coloured to pale yellow, each flower on a pedicel 1.5–4 mm (0.059–0.157 in) long. The sepals are 2.0–2.5 mm (0.079–0.098 in) long but fall off as the flowers mature, the petals spatula-shaped and 1.5–2.5 mm (0.059–0.098 in) long. Flowering occurs from September to November.^[2][3][4]

Taxonomy

Pomaderris andromedifolia was first formally described in 1825 by Allan Cunningham and the description was published in Barron Field's Geographical Memoirs on New South Wales.^[5][6] The specific epithet (andromedifolia) refers to a similarity of the leaves of this species to those of the bog rosemary, Andromeda.^[4]

In 1997, Neville Walsh described two subspecies of P. andromedifolia and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

• Pomaderris andromedifolia A.Cunn. subsp. andromedifolia^[7] has straight hairs between the veins on the lower surface of the leaves and bracts that fall before the flowers open;^[8][9]
• Pomaderris andromedifolia subsp. confusa N.G.Walsh & Coates^[10] has curved or wavy hairs between the veins on the lower surface of the leaves and bracts that remain until flowering occurs.^[11][12]

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies andromedifolia mainly grows in forest along the coast and tablelands from south-east Queensland, through New South Wales to far north-eastern Victoria,^[8][9] but subspecies confusa is only known from south-eastern New South Wales and from collections in 2019 near Mallacoota in far north-eastern Victoria.^[11][12]