Zieria murphyi

A slender shrub reaching 2 metres in height.

It has a restricted distribution in NSW, with a few records at Mt Tomah in the Blue Mountains; then with a disjunction to the southern highlands around Penrose and Bundanoon; with a final patch west of Tomerong.

It is a listed threatened species.

It grows in dry sclerophyll forest, in sheltered positions in moist gullies, on sandy soil.

Zieria spp. have leaves arranged in opposite pairs, compound with three leaflets (tri-foliolate) or one leaflet (uni-foliolate). When trifoliolate, the leaflets are often similar in shape with the middle leaflet often larger, and with leaves usually strongly odorous, green to grey-green.
In this species, both tri-foliolate and uni-foliolate leaves are produced (dimorphic foliage) on same branches (Mt Tomah plants are consistently tri-foliolate), with leaflets up to 50 mm long by 10 mm wide, upper surfaces dark green and hairy, lower surfaces greyish-green with a velvet texture due to stellate (star-shaped) hairs.

Zieria spp. have flowers arranged in groups (cymose clusters) in the leaf axils and have four sepals joined at the base and four petals, alternating with the sepals. There are four stamens and four fused carpels. In this species, the flowers are in clusters of 3 to 10, in leaf axils; white to pale pink, occurring in spring in southern populations, but occurring all through the year at Mt Tomah.

Zieria have a fruit described as a schizocarp-capsule which splits into segments called cocci (singular coccus). Fruit generally have four cocci, each containing one or two seeds. In this species, the fruits do not have warts but are hairy, and lack an oil body (elaisome).