Smooth Wallaby-bush
Male Flower
Ellura
Smooth Wallaby-bush
Mature Fruit
 
                      
Smooth Wallaby-bush (Beyeria opaca)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Shrubs & Bushes
Order: Spurges & Allies (Malpighiales)
Family: Spurge (Euphorbiaceae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Smooth Wallaby-bush (Beyeria opaca)
This Photo:     Green Fruit

Thank you Geoffrey Cox & Tony and Jenny Dominelli for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Riverland and elsewhere
Short, wide bush, with fruit that starts green drying to pale brown, then reddish brown. Fruit has red cap when young, darkening to black later. The fruit is more like a nut really, very hard to break open when drying, and as can be seen the single seed is quite a larger percentage of the fruit size.
Leaves are dark green on top, pale under.
New growth is lime green, almost yellow, and darkens to a deep bottle green.
Flowers are small, with no petals, and look yellow due to the stamen.

Copyright © 2012-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 29-Aug-2012
This species is classed as LC (Least Concern) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)