Flora - Winter
Viewing the meaning of botanical words To view the meaning of botanical words, hold the cursor on the blue word and the meaning will appear in a text box.
Based on Debenham C’s, The Language of Botany, A Publication of The Society for Growing Australian Plants, Chipping Norton NSW, c.1962.
Acacia myrtifolia
Botanical name: Acacia myrtifolia
Commonly Called: Redstem wattle
Botanical Family: Mimosaceae
Grows: 1 to 2m high by 0.5 to 1.5m wide
Foliage: Phyllodes green to red and variable in size from 2 to 5cm long, 5 to 20mm wide. The 2 to 5cm long, red to green phyllodes have a prominent central vein and are thick and leathery. These phyllodes have a distinctive circular gland on the edge just above the stem. Stems are often reddish, hence the common name.
Flora: The flowers are 5 to 10mm diameter cream balls, sometimes bright yellow, 2 to 4 per head, singly or in open spikes (racemes).
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in late autumn, winter and early spring.
Fruit: Dark brown pods are up to 5cm long and become twisted when mature. They contain many shiny brown seeds.
How and where it grows: This wattle is usually a small dense shrub but it may grow prostrate in exposed costal sites. It is widespread in woodlands and heathlands in well-drained soils, especially on rocky sites. This species is common on the east coast and in Rocky Cape National Park and is also found in WA, SA, Vic, NSW and Q.
Where found: Luther to Stapleton Points Track and sand stone quarry Orford and Tasmanian Bushland Gardens; Bridport Wildflower, Knocklofty, Peter Murrell and Waterworks Reserves; Freycinet including Schouten Island, Narawntapu, Rocky Cape and Tasman National Parks.
Other notes: The red tinge on green leaves and stems and 2 to 4 flowers in each head are distinguishing features, the red foliage is more pronounced when growing in full sun. Grows best in well-drained sites and is good for revegetation in bare, infertile quarries or coastal sites. Special forms such as prostrate, yellow flowers and/or large leaves are best propagated from cuttings.
Acacia stricta
Botanical Name: Acacia stricta
Commonly Called: Hop wattle
Botanical Family: Mimosaceae
Grows: 1 to 3m high by 1 to 2m wide
Foliage: The 4 to 10cm long by 3 to 8mm wide, green or silver grey, linear to oblanceolate phyllodes are leathery with a prominent vein and fine lateral veins forming a close longitudinal network.
Flora: The flowers on short stalks from the leaf axils are pairs or clusters each with 20 to 30 pale yellow balls.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in late winter through into early spring.
Fruit: The fruit, a flat pod to 7cm long and 4mm wide, occurs in summer through into autumn.
How and where it grows: Widespread in dry areas. It is also found in SA, Vic, NSW and Q.
Where found: Howden Foreshore and Wingara Gully; Old Convict Road, Orford and Tasmanian Bushland Gardens; Kingborough Municipality; Knocklofty, Peter Murrell and Coningham Nature Reserves; Narawntapu, Rocky Cape and Tasman National Parks.
Other notes: An erect Acacia that grows as a woody shrub or small tree with ridged stems and straight phyllodes. It often suckers. This species requires well-drained soil and full to part sun and will withstand coastal exposure. Good grey forms are available.
Acacia suaveolens
Botanical Name: Acacia suaveolens
Commonly Called: Sweet wattle
Botanical Family: Mimosaceae
Grows: 1 to 2m H x 3 to 3.5m W
Foliage: The blue/green phyllodes are usually narrow, up to 15mm long and feature a single vein.
Flora: The buds of the flowers shed their covering of brown bracts to reveal clusters of pale cream to yellow balls with a sweet scent and grow on short stalks from the phyllode axils.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in late autumn through winter and spring
Fruit: The bluish seedpods dry to brown and grow 2 to 5cm long and 1 to 2cm wide.
How and where it grows: Widespread on sandy heathlands near the coast and is also found in SA, Vic, NSW and Qld.
Where found: Throughout Tasmania especially moist areas; Bluff River Gorge, Cheltenham, Coningham, Diprose Lagoon Nature, Knocklofty, Meehan Ranges, Orford Thumbs and Flash Tiers, Peter Murrell, Township Lagoon, Wellington Park and many other Reserves; Freycinet including Schouten Island, Narawntapu, Rocky Cape and Tasman National Parks; King and some Furneaux, Maria and Bruny Islands; Heritage Forest Tasmanian Native Garden; Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens; Tasmanian Bushland Gardens, Buckland; and The Tasmanian Arboretum, Eugenana; also many home gardens.
Other notes: This variable shrub may be dense and compact or upright and open and is best suited to fairly well-drained light to heavy soils in dappled shade through to full sun. It does not tolerate salt spray but will tolerate frosts. It responds to light pruning after flowering. Its flower buds being covered by brown bracts, the sweet smelling flowers and wide seed pods enable species recognition.
Acrotriche serrulata
Botanical Name: Acrotriche serrulata
Commonly Called: Ants delight
Botanical Family: Epacridaceae
Grows: The prickly, small, rounded and often dense shrub grows 10 to 30cm high by 30 to 50cm wide.
Foliage: The leaves have hairy-white under-surface, rolled under edges, are wider at the stem, taper to a sharp point and are 10 to 15mm long.
Flora: The flowers arise in the axils of past season’s leaves or on old bare wood. They are white to green and are often purple-tinged, hairy, swollen and tubular, containing much nectar.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in winter through spring
Fruit: The round, green drupe which doesn’t open to release its seed until conditions are appropriate; the fruit is covered with a white bloom.
How and where it grows: Common in dry, sandy heathlands and dry sclerophyll woodlands of the east and south-east. It is also SA, Vic, NSW.
Where found: Throughout Tasmania especially moist areas; Diprose Lagoon Nature, Knocklofty, Orford Thumbs and Flash Tiers and, Township Lagoon Reserves; Freycinet including Schouten Island, Narawntapu, Rocky Cape and Tasman National Parks; King and some Furneaux, Maria and Bruny Islands; Bluff River Gorge, Cheltenham, Orford Thumbs, Peter Murrell, Meehan Ranges, Wellington Park and many other Reserves; Heritage Forest Tasmanian Native Garden; Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens; Tasmanian Bushland Gardens, Buckland; and The Tasmanian Arboretum, Eugenana; also many home gardens.
Other notes: A small, woody, low-growing, dense or bushy shrub with spreading branches. The flowers are borne on old season’s growth, whereas in most other genera, the flowers are borne on current season’s growth. Prickly green leaves on ground-hugging plant, often growing in association with Astroloma humifusum which has grey leaves and red flowers. Requires well drained soil in full to part sun.
Boronia anemonifolia
Botanical Name: Boronia anemonifolia
Commonly Called: Stinking boronia
Botanical Family: Rutaceae
Grows: This erect, woody shrub grows 0.5 to 2.5m high by 0.5 to 1.5m wide with glandular, tuberculate, glaucous to pubescent branches.
Foliage: The foliage consists of long pinnate or bipinnate leaves with 3 to 7 and up to 9 pairs of leaflets spaced along the rachis at intervals of 3 to 7mm.
The dark green leaflets are usually trifoliate with 2 to 10mm long flat stalks. The leaflets, 3 to 13mm long by 1 to 4mm wide, are variable in shape from cuneate to elliptic, ovate or obovate and flat or conduplicate.
Sometimes the tips are divided into three lobes. The foliage has the strong aroma similar to turpentine.
Flora: The flowers form from the leaf axils in 2 to 10mm long stemmed clusters with 1 to 3 (and up to 9+) pinkish buds each having 1.5 to 6mm long stems. The buds open with four white to deep pink 3 to 5mm long petals surrounding pilose, strap form, staminel filaments.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in late winter through spring.
Fruit: The fruit are capsules maturing in summer.
How and where it grows: This is an understorey shrub from heathlands of the north and east, to dry hill-sides of the south, usually on sandstone or granite. It is also found in Vic, NSW and Q.
Where found: Bluff River Gorge, Mt. Claude and the Gog Range, Tasmanian Bushland Garden; Freycinet, Rocky Cape and Tasman National Parks; Flinders, King, Maria and Three Hummock Islands; many other locations along the east coast.
Other notes: This erect, glandular and sticky shrub has a strong odour similar to turpentine when the leaves are crushed. It tolerates dry sandy to well-drained, moist soils in dappled shade to full sun if the roots are well mulched, and it responds well to pruning.
Cryptandra amara
Botanical Name: Cryptandra amara
Commonly Called: Pretty pearlflower
Botanical Family: Rhamanaceae
Grows: 15 to 30cm H x 30 to 50cm W
Foliage: The tiny leaves of this species are variable, crowded on the upper side of branches and 2 to 6mm long. The wiry branchlets alternately end in a sharp spine or thorn.
Flora: The small clusters of tiny, tubular flowers are white to reddish in colour.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in winter through to spring.
Fruit: The fruit of this species is a capsule.
How and where it grows: An endangered plant with limited distribution in the north and east of Tasmania, it is also found in SA, Vic, NSW and Q.
Where found: Ford Road Reserve Pontville (if it has survived a bare earth ‘hazard reduction?’ burn in autumn 2023); Langdons Creek near Hollow Tree; Clyde River Falls near Bothwell; Shannon River downstream of Hermitage; Midland Highway Tunbridge; Duck River; South Esk River; Corra Lynn S of Launceston; Patterdale Creek, Kingston SE of Nile; Tasman Highway near Lake Leake junction; Swanport above the ‘Black Marsh’; Tasmanian Bushland Gardens; and several other Tasmanian locations.
Other notes: This variable species is an attractive garden plant that can be difficult to establish and prefers semi-shade. It can make a good container plant and is useful for cut flowers. It is a very distinctive plant with its masses of tiny tubular flowers and wiry stems.
Epacris lanuginosa
Botanical Name: Epacris lanuginosa
Commonly Called: Swamp heath
Botanical Family: Epacridaceae
Grows: 50 to 125cm H x 50 to 80cm W
Foliage: This small upright shrub has short branches clad with stem-clasping, lanceolate (tapering both ends and wider in the middle) leaves, 8 to 9mm long with a hard pointed tip.
Flora: The tubular white flowers grow densely in the axils of the upper leaves on each stem.
Flowering Season: Flowers may appear in winter through to summer and sporadically.
Fruit: The fruit are dry fruit or capsules which splits to release their seed when mature.
How and where it grows: This moisture loving plant is found in marshy heathlands, often with dense ground covering plants, grasses, sags and small ferns. It occurs in Tasmania from the coast to 1000m and is also found in Victoria and NSW.
Where found: Old Monmouth Track, Acton Park; Mother Browns Bonnet Track, Woodvine Reserve; Moonlight Hill, Tasman National Park; Ben Lomond National Park; Central Highlands; Furneaux and King Islands; Northern Slopes; Tasmanian South East, South East Coastal Plain and Corner; Southern Ranges.
Other notes: This species needs to be grown in moist well-drained soil in part shade for best results. It is frost tolerant and is best propagated from semi-hard wood cuttings taken in autumn. It also reponds well to pruning after flowering. The stem clasping foliage and enlarged hairy centre of the style help identify this species.
Micrantheum hexandrum
Botanical Name: Micrantheum hexandrum
Commonly Called: River tridentbush
Botanical Family: Euphorbiaceae
Grows: 1-3m H x 1-1.5m W
Foliage: The narrow, linear to oblong leaves are 6 to 15mm long and grow in alternate groups of three. It is a woody shrub with a red tinge on the young branches.
Flora: Separate male and female, creamish, small flowers grow in clusters of one to three on short stalks in the leaf axils.
Flowering season: Flowers appear in winter and through spring.
Fruit: The fruit is a small capsule.
How and where it grows: This plant grows on the side of rivers (riparian) or in wet shady locations. It is restricted to the north and east of the State, from sea level to 1000m. This species is also found in Vic, NSW and Q.
Where found: Meander River, Long Ridge State Forest; Maclaines Creek and Spring River, Triabunna; Prosser River Orford; Rocka Rivulet, Tooms Lake; Swan River Causeway on Royal George Road; Granite Falls; Douglas River; St Pauls River; South Esk River Cascades
Other notes: This hardy, attractive garden plant tolerates periods of dry, shade and frost. It needs to be pruned to promote flowering and maintain shape. It may be propagated from cuttings and this is the only way to cultivate the weeping form. THe narrow linear leaf shape distinguishes it from the Micrantheum serpentinum, Western tridentbush, which is endemic to Tasmania.
Spyridium vexilliferum
Botanical Name: Spyridium vexilliferum var. vexilliferum
Commonly Called: Helicopter bush
Botanical Family: Rhamnaceae
Grows: low-lying to erect shrub up to about 0.5 to 1.4m H by 0.5 to 1m W
Foliage: Spyridium vexilliferum var. vexilliferum has fine, narrow, widely spaced leaves from 8 to 15mm long with rolled under edges.
Flora: The distinctive flowers consist of dense heads of cream to brown flowers, each about 1.5mm diameter on the end of the branchlets surrounded by 2 or 3 densely pilose white floral leaves about the same length but a little wider than the foliage leaves.
Botanical Name: Spyridium vexilliferum var. latifolium
Commonly Called: Helicopter bush
Botanical Family: Rhamnaceae
Grows: This variety is a low-lying, often dense shrub up to about 80 cm high and spreading to 1m wide.
Foliage: Spyridium vexilliferum var. latifolium has broad, linear to elliptical leaves up to 3 mm wide by 10 to 15mm long with rolled under edges and light venation on the upper surface.
Flora: The distinctive flowers consist of dense heads of cream to brown flowers, each about 1.5mm diameter on the end of the branchlets surrounded by 2 or 3 densely pilose, white, elliptical floral leaves about the same length and usually wider than the foliage leaves.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in winter through spring.
Fruit: The fruit are capsules with three cells.
How and where it grows: The variety vexilliferum is found on the east and north coasts and the variety latifolium is found on the west coast. Both are found in sandy heathlands, rocky slopes and on river banks. They are also found in South Australia and Victoria.
Where found: The variety vexilliferum is found in many places in Freycinet National Park; Tasmanian Bushland Gardens; Cape Portland; Molesworth; Murderers Tier; Lisdillon Rivulet and Kafoozalum Creek on the east coast.
The variety latifolium is found on the west coast from Couta Rocks area up to West Point.
Other notes: This interesting, attractive bush requires full sun and well-drained soil. The distinctive floral leaves have the appearance of a helicopter’s rotor blades and are present for many months. The plants should be pruned after the flowers die. Propagation by cuttings can be difficult. It is suggested that Spyridium vexilliferum var. latifolium is not a valid variety, just a different morphotype of var. vexilliferum. It is possible that it is a weather and salt spray induced foliage distortion.
Stenanthera pinifolia syn. Astroloma pinifolium
Botanical Name: Stenanthera pinifolia syn. Astroloma pinifolium
Commonly Called: Pine heath
Botanical Family: ERICACEAE subfam EPACRIDOIDEAE tribe 6 STYPHELIAE genera 25 STENANTHERA
Grows: This is a prostrate, usually dense shrub which grows 30 to 75cm high by 40 to 100cm wide.
Foliage: The pubescent branchlets are covered with many soft, light green, needle-like leaves. While those on the upper side of the branchlets are crowded, those on the underside fall off leaving small raised scars. These leaves, 9.5 to 25mm long by 0.3 to 0.6mm diameter, have tiny stems, taper to a point and their rolled under edges all but hide the midrib on their undersides.
Flora: The solitary, tubular, yellow flowers have green tips and are 15 to 18mm long and arise from the leaf axils.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear in winter through spring.
Fruit: The spherical fruit is an edible, pale green drupe, usually with a single seed inside. When the fruit ripens and drops, and moisture in the soil softens the stone, the seed germinates.
How and where it grows: This species is found on the east and the west coasts in damp heathland, often near granite outcrops. It is also found in some inland sandstone locations.
Where found: Bluff River Gorge; Moonlight Hill and several other places in the Tasman, and many places in the Freycinet, National Parks; Hills between Cole River and Orielton; many places on Bruny and Maria Islands; Lake Crescent; Several locations around St Helens, Binalong Bay and Goulds Country.
Other notes: This lovely small, often prostrate, soft pine like foliaged plant is sadly hard to keep alive in the home garden, it requires part shaded (easterly aspect), moist, well-drained soil. It is best propagate from cuttings which may be slow to strike. It is easily recognised due to its yellow, green tipped, tubular flowers.
Tetratheca labillardierei
Botanical Name: Tetratheca labillardierei
Commonly Called: Glandular pinkbells
Botanical Family: Tremandraceae
Grows: This small open shrub grows 10 to 50cm high by 30 to 40cm wide as an understorey plant.
Foliage: The finely toothed rolled under edges of the dark green, 6 to 10mm long, alternate leaves are rough to touch and the stems are hairy and glandular.
Flora: The mauve, bell-shaped flowers have prominent black stamens and grow, usually singly, on 6 to 10mm long stems from the leaf axils.
Flowering Season: This pretty plant flowers in the winter and through spring and even occasionally in summer.
Fruit: The fruit of this shrub is a papery capsule.
How and where it grows: This species is commonly found in dry sclerophyll forests and sandy, dry heathland. It also grows in WA, SA, Vic, NSW and Qld.
Where found: It is common in Freycinet and Tasman National Parks; Bluff River, Bridport Wildflower, Cape Deslacs Nature, Knocklofty, Meehan Range Conservation, Orford Thumbs and Flash Tier and Peter Murrell Reserves; Orford Luther to Stapleton Points Track.
Other notes: This small shrub flowers profusely through winter and spring with mauve/pink bell-shaped flowers which are mainly on the end of the stems. It needs to be planted in moist, well-drained soil in part-sun and should be pruned after flowering for longer life. Cuttings taken in winter are usually more successful.
Wurmbea dioica
Botanical Name: Wurmbea dioica subsp. dioica
Commonly Called: Early Nancy
Botanical Family: Liliaceae
Grows: This small erect herb grows 10 to 20cm high.
Foliage: The three leaves are all linear, the lower is single and the upper two, well up the stem, are wider at the stem and narrow toward the tip.
Flora: The distinctive flowers, up to 2cm in diammeter, have six white floral parts (petals) with purple nectaries. There are two to seven flowers on the up to 10cm stem. The species is dioecious, with the female plant flowers having prominent 3 cell ovaries, while the male plant flowers feature six stamens with purple anthers. Both female and male flowers have a distinctive purple circle around the center of the petals.
Flowering Season: The flowers appear from mid-winter to early spring.
Fruit: The three celled fruit is a brown capsule
How and where it grows: Wurmbea dioica is found in dry sandy heathlands and dry sclerophyll forests as well as in most mainland states.
Where found: Meehan Range near Eagle Hill; Waverley Flora Park; Jordan River Reserve Pontville; Flinders Island; Little Musselroe Bay; NE Coast, near Croppies Point; Tunbridge; west of Ross; south of Epping Forest and many other places up the Midlands Highway; Mt. Garrett; Mt. Nelson; Rosny Hill Circuit Track; Knopwood Hill Mornington and many other places around Hobart.
Other notes: The burgundy circle around the centre of the flower attracts the eye to this delightful little plant which requires well-drained soil in full sun/part shade. Being difficult to maintain in the home garden, it should be treated as an annual, propagated from seed. While Wurmbea dioica has two to six flowers per stem, Wurmbea uniflora usually only has a single flower and yellow anthers and is monoecious.
