Acrotriche leucocarpa



Acrotriche leucocarpa is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is an erect, bushy shrub with sharply-pointed lance-shaped leaves and spikes of 3 to 5 green, tube-shaped flowers and spherical to oval, translucent white drupes.

Description
Acrotriche leucocarpa is an erect, bushy shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1.3 m and has many branches. Its leaves are usually lance-shaped, 5.5–14 mm long, 1.5–3.5 mm wide and sharply-pointed, on a petiole 0.5–1.0 mm long. The upper leaf surface is dull green and the lower surface striated. The flowers are arranged in spikes with 3 to 6 flowers with keel-shaped bracteoles about 0.5 mm long at the base of the sepals. The sepals are broadly egg-shaped, 1.25–1.6 mm long and the petals green, sometimes with a reddish tinge on the tips, and joined at the base forming a tube 1.5–2.5 mm long, the lobes 1.0–1.2 mm long. Flowering occurs between May and October and the fruit is an oval or spherical, translucent, pearly white drupe 3–5 mm in diameter.

Taxonomy
Acrotriche divaricata was first formally described in 1990 by Peter Craig Jobson and Trevor Paul Whiffin in the journal Muelleria from specimens collected by Jobson near Big Badja Hill in 1988. The specific epithet (leucocarpa) means 'white fruit' and alludes to the characteristic white drupe of this species.

Distribution and habitat
This species of Acrotriche grows in open woodland as an understorey shrub and occurs between the Tinderry Mountains in southern New South Wales, to near Mount Elizabeth in East Gippsland in Victoria.