410 
Telopea 8(4): 2000 
Fig. 2. Distribution of Minuria scoparia. 
A pollen:ovule ratio of 849 was determined from a single capitulum containing 37 
female and 24 male florets. This value and the relatively inconspicuous ray florets 
(compared to other Astereae with ray florets) suggests that the species commonly self- 
pollinates and is self-compatible (e.g. Short 1981, Watanabe et al. 1991). 
Notes: apart from recent collections (by JRH in 1992, 1997 & 1998), the only other 
specimens known to us were gathered by the Reverend H.M.R. Rupp from Woodsreef 
in April and August 1913. His collections are housed in NSW. Tire most distinctive 
feature of the species, its habit, is not evident from Rupp's specimens and they were 
at one stage incorporated under the name Vittadinia australis A.Rich. var. tenuissima 
Benth. and subsequently under the name Minuria cunninghamii. It is with the latter 
species and M. leptophylla that M. scoparia is most likely to be confused. It is readily 
differentiated from both, not only by its broom-like habit but also by differences in 
pappus morphology. In M. scoparia the pappus in both ray and disc florets generally 
appears to be monomorphic, with occasionally in both types of floret few-celled 
outgrowths occurring at the base of the large bristles. In both M. cunninghamii and 
M. leptoplnjlla the pappus of the disc florets is manifestly dimorphic as illustrated in 
Lander (1992). 
