Cliffortia ferricola C.Whitehouse

Medium, erect shrub, up to 1.5 m high, resprouting after fire and spreading clonally; densely divaricately branched, forming brachyblasts; young stems 1.2-1.7 mm wide, tinged reddish, hairy; stem hairs adpressed upwards, 0.2-0.7 mm long. Leaves usually unifoliate and deeply toothed, but occasionally bifoliate or trifoliate; leaflets broadly ovate to lanceolate, 5.3-10.0 x 1.7-3.5 mm, apex sharply acuminate to pungent, 0.7-1.5 mm long, margins turned upwards to rounded, smooth and entire or more frequently with 2 teeth becoming deeply 3-lobed, lobes 0.6-4.9 mm long, straight; lamina 4-7-veined from base, cartilaginous, 0.3-0.4 mm thick, midrib prominent abaxially against lamina, curved downwards and away from stem, glabrous adaxially, hairy abaxially on very young growth but soon becoming glabrous, hairs 0.3-0.7 mm long; sheath 1.0-1.8 mm long, abaxially glabrous, adaxially scattered adpressed hairs; stipules 0.7-1.3 mm long, free, margins smooth to ciliate; petiole absent. Flowers solitary in axil of undifferentiated leaves; bracteoles hairy on keel with margins ciliate or not; sepals 3, hairy abaxially. Male flowers: bracteoles 4.0-4.6 mm long; pedicel and receptacle 1.1-1.4 mm long; sepals broadly ovate, 6.4-6.8 x 2.2-3.0 mm, acute to acuminate at apex; stamens 9 or 10; filaments 8.8-10.1 mm long, red; anthers brownish red. Female flowers: bracteoles 3.1-4.4 mm long, longer than immature receptacle; sepals ovate, 3.2-4.1 x 0.8-1.3 mm, recurved; carpel 1; stigma 6.7-8.7 mm long, red, feathery, prominent above leaves; immature receptacle 2.4-2.9 x 0.9-1.2 mm, glabrous, clearly ribbed. Achene narrowly ellipsoid and slightly curved, 3.5-4.8 x 1.2-1.5 mm, medium to dark brown, glabrous; ribs 9-13, rounded to acute, 0.1-0.2 mm wide; elaiosome swollen around base. Flowering time: September-February, possibly sporadically all year.