Australina pusilla subsp. pusilla
Small Shade-nettleStems to 4 cm high and 0.5(–1.0) mm diam.; young stems and petioles with stiff, appressed hairs or occasionally also with finer, more erect hairs. Leaf-lamina more or less circular, to 11 (rarely to 15) mm long and 12 (rarely 16) mm wide, length to width ratio 0.8–1.2; margin with 2–3 (rarely 1–4) blunt or rounded teeth on each side; apical tooth almost always wider than long; both surfaces usually glabrous (but may be lines of appressed hairs between veins and scattered appressed hairs on veins). Male inflorescences with peduncle to 6 mm long. Male flowers 2 (rarely 1 or 3). Female flowers 1–4 (rarely 9). Flowers Oct.–Jan.
VVP, WaP, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, VAlp. Also NSW, Tas. New Zealand. In Victoria, known only from Otway Range and the catchment of Sealers Cove on Wilsons Promontory. Grows in moist undergrowth of forest or scrub.
While some intermediates exist between the 2 subspecies, subsp. pusilla, with its small roundish leaves, is quite distinctive in Victoria.
Entwisle, T.J. (1996). Australina. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 84–85. Inkata Press, Melbourne.