Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 408 (1810).

Derivation: Greek rhagodes, bearing berries.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Rhagodias.

Description:
Dioecious shrubs, somewhat mealy (at least when young) with globular hairs which may collapse to form a scurfy or a continuous silvery sheen; leaves opposite or alternate, simple, entire or bluntly lobed at the base.

Flowers small, clustered, forming panicles or spike-like thyrses; perianth globular; segments 5, shortly united at the base, often spreading and enlarged in fruit; male flowers: stamens 5, usually united into a disc at the bale that is puberulous or woolly within (rarely glabrous); female flower: if terminal then with staminodes and a woolly disc; if lateral then with small glabrous staminodes or these absent; ovary glabrous; stigmas 2, sessile.

Fruit a depressed-globular berry c. 3 mm diam.; pericarp succulent; seed horizontal, lenticular, 1-1.5 mm diam.; testa crustaceous, black, smooth to reticulate; embryo circular; perisperm copious, central.

Distribution:  11 species, all endemic to Australia. (P. G. Wilson (1983) Nuytsia 4:213-235.)

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Leaves c. 3 mm long; intricately branched spinescent shrubs	R. ulicina 8.
1. Leaves more than 3 mm long or plant not spinescent
2. Perianth glabrous or almost so	R. preissii 6.
2. Perianth mealy
3. Leaves becoming scaly and covered with a silvery sheen; staminodes present in female flowers
4. Leaves flat, papery or slightly fleshy	R. candolleana 1.
4. Leaves fusiform or semiterete, fleshy	R. crassifolia 2.
3. Leaves mealy with spherical to irregular shaped vesicular hairs or glabrous (not becoming scaly or forming a sheen)
5. Indumentum of spherical or saucer-shaped vesicular hairs
6. Leaves narrow-elliptic; lamina mostly 7-10 mm long; female flowers lacking both a disc and staminodes; seed almost smooth	R. drummondii 3.
6. Leaf-shape variable; lamina 3-20 mm long; lateral female flowers with a disc and often staminodes; seed prominently reticulate	R. spinescens 7.
5. Indumentum of minute irregularly shaped vesicular hairs
7. Leaves broad-obovate or bluntly hastate, flat; inflorescence pyramidal	R. parabolica 5.
7. Leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, c. 15 mm long, sparsely mealy below with minute hairs; flowers in dense slender spikes sometimes paniculately arranged	R. eremaea 4.

Author: Not yet available