Eremophila serrulata

Last updated

Serrate-leaved eremophila
Eremophila serrulata Fagg.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Genus: Eremophila
Species:
E. serrulata
Binomial name
Eremophila serrulata
Synonyms [1]
  • Bondtia serrulata Kuntze orth. var.
  • Bontia serrulata(A.Cunn. ex A.DC.) Kuntze
  • Eremophila latifolia F.Muell.
  • Stenochilus serrulatusA.Cunn. ex A.DC.
  • Stenochilus serrulatus var. lyndhurstiana Kraenzl.
  • Stenochilus serrulatusA.Cunn. ex A.DC. var. serrulatus

Eremophila serrulata, commonly known as serrate-leaved eremophila, [2] is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is an erect or spreading shrub whose leaves are sticky and have small serrations, and flowers that have green, yellowish-green or yellowish-brown petals.

Contents

Description

Eremophila serrulata is a shrub that grows to a height and width of 0.8 to 2.5 m (3 to 8 ft). Its leaves are arranged alternately along the branches and are lance-shaped, egg-shaped or almost circular and have a stalk 2–12 mm (0.08–0.5 in) long. The leaf blade is mostly 11–51 mm (0.4–2 in) long, 6–22 mm (0.2–0.9 in) wide, usually has many small serrations on the edges and sometimes has a few hairs but these are often obscured by resin. [3] [2] [4] [5]

The flowers are borne singly in leaf axils on a slightly hairy, S-shaped stalk, 10–25 mm (0.4–1 in) long. There are 5 overlapping, glabrous, lance-shaped to egg-shaped sepals which are mostly 10–15 mm (0.4–0.6 in) long. The petals are 20–30 mm (0.79–1.2 in) long and are joined at their lower end to form a tube. The petal tube is green, yellowish-green or yellowish-brown and the inner and outer surfaces are covered with glandular hairs. The 4 stamens extend beyond the end of the petal tube. Flowering occurs throughout the year but mainly from April to October. The fruits are oval to almost spherical and are 5–7 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long and have a glabrous, pale grey covering. [3] [2] [4] [5]

E. serrulata habit Eremophila serrulata.jpg
E. serrulata habit

Taxonomy and naming

The species was first formally described in 1847 by botanist Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle based on an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham . They gave it the name Stenochilus serrulatus and published the description in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis . [6] [7] In 1917 George Claridge Druce changed the name to Eremophila serrulata and published the change in The Botanical Exchange Club and Society of the British Isles Report for 1916, Supplement 2. [8] The specific epithet (serrulata) is the diminutive form of the Latin word serratus meaning "toothed like a saw", [9] hence finely serrated, referring to the edges of the leaves of this species. [2]

Distribution and habitat

Green fuchsia bush is widespread and common in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales. In Western Australia it is found between Warburton and Shark Bay. [2] In South Australia it occurs in the North-Western, Lake Eyre, Nullarbor, Gairdner-Torrens, Flinders Ranges, Eastern, Eyre Peninsula and Northern Lofty botanical regions. [4] In the Northern Territory it is only found in the far south-west [3] and in New South Wales in the north-west plains, south-west plains and northern far-west plains. [5] It often grows in skeletal soils on rocky hillsides frequently in mulga or mallee woodland. [3]

Conservation

Eremophila serrulata is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife. [10]

Use in horticulture

Although not a spectacular plant in flower, this eremophila is a very hardy, long-lived shrub, and it attracts nectar-feeding birds. It will grow in situations such as those with heavy clay soils, where others will not. It can be propagated from cuttings but may sucker when grown on its own roots, however if this behaviour is undesirable, it can also be grafted onto Myoporum rootstock. It will grow in most soils in full sun or part shade, is very drought tolerant and frost tolerant. [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Eremophila glabra</i> Species of plant

Eremophila glabra, commonly known as tar bush, is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is sometimes a low, ground-hugging and sometimes an erect shrub. The leaves are variable in size and shape and there is a range of flower colours. In spite of its scientific name, not all forms of the plant are glabrous but most have many small, raised glands on the stems, flowers and leaves.

<i>Eremophila maculata</i> Species of plant

Eremophila maculata, also known as spotted emu bush or spotted fuchsia-bush, is a plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, and is endemic to Australia. It is the most widespread of its genus in nature and probably the most frequently cultivated Eremophila. It is a spreading, often densely branched shrub with variable leaf shape and flower colour, but the other features of the flowers such as the size and shape of the parts are consistent. The inside of the flower is often, but not always, spotted.

<i>Eremophila debilis</i> Species of flowering plant

Eremophila debilis, the winter apple or amulla, is a flowering plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, and is endemic to an area extending from north Queensland to near the border between New South Wales and Victoria in Australia. It is a prostrate shrub with elliptic to lance-shaped or egg-shaped leaves and white, rarely deep mauve flowers.

<i>Eremophila brevifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Eremophila brevifolia, also known as spotted eremophila, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, open, spindly shrub with sticky, short, serrated leaves and white to pink flowers and is only known from a few scattered populations.

<i>Sambucus gaudichaudiana</i> Species of plant

Sambucus gaudichaudiana, commonly known as white elderberry, is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a perennial shrub but with stems that are produced annually with pinnate leaves that have three to eleven leaflets, small white flowers and small but edible fruit. It grows in cool forest and shady gorges.

<i>Pomaderris aspera</i> Species of tree

Pomaderris aspera, commonly known as hazel pomaderris, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with elliptic to lance-shaped or egg-shaped leaves and greenish-yellow flowers.

<i>Bossiaea ensata</i> Species of legume

Bossiaea ensata, commonly known as sword bossiaea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is an erect or low-lying, glabrous shrub with flattened branches, flattened, winged cladodes, leaves mostly reduced to small scales, and orange-yellow and red flowers.

<i>Boronia ledifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia ledifolia, commonly known as the Sydney boronia, showy boronia or ledum boronia, is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with simple or pinnate leaves which have a strong odour when crushed, and pale to bright pink flowers. Although difficult to propagate, this boronia is a popular garden plant.

<i>Gompholobium glabratum</i> Species of legume

Gompholobium glabratum, commonly known as dainty wedge-pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a low-lying or ascending shrub with pinnate leaves that have five to seven leaflets, and yellow and green or greyish flowers.

<i>Bossiaea rhombifolia</i> Species of legume

Bossiaea rhombifolia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect, glabrous shrub with diamond-shaped, more or less round or broadly egg-shaped leaves, and yellow and red or pinkish flowers.

Myoporum mauritianum is a flowering plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to a few volcanic islands in the Indian Ocean. It is a small, low-branched shrub with serrated leaves and small white flowers and usually grows on calcarenite within 20 metres (70 ft) of the sea.

<i>Eremophila serpens</i> Species of flowering plant

Eremophila serpens, commonly known as snake eremophila, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a prostrate, creeping shrub with long, horizontal branches, leaves which often have irregular serrations, and yellowish-green petals with red or brownish-purple markings.

<i>Hovea chorizemifolia</i> Species of legume

Hovea chorizemifolia, commonly known as the holly-leaved hovea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small, upright shrub with prickly, green leaves and blue-purple pea flowers.

<i>Leptospermum myrtifolium</i> Australian species of plant

Leptospermum myrtifolium, commonly known as the myrtle tea-tree or grey tea-tree, is a species of shrub that is endemic to south eastern Australia. It has broad egg-shaped to elliptical leaves, white flowers usually borne singly on short side shoots, and fruit that remains on the plant until it dies.

<i>Philotheca myoporoides <span style="font-style:normal;">subsp.</span> myoporoides</i> Subspecies of flowering plant

Philotheca myoporoides subsp. myoporoides, commonly known as long-leaf wax flower, is a subspecies of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a shrub with oblong to elliptic or egg-shaped leaves and white or pink flowers arranged in groups of three to eight in leaf axils.

<i>Pultenaea euchila</i> Species of flowering plant

Pultenaea euchila, commonly known as orange pultenaea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect shrub with glabrous foliage, narrow egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and orange-coloured flowers arranged singly or in small groups near the ends of branchlets.

<i>Sprengelia monticola</i> Species of plant

Sprengelia monticola, commonly known as rock sprengelia, is a species of flowering plant of the family Ericaceae, and is endemic to the Blue Mountains in eastern New South Wales. It is an open or low-lying shrub with egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves, and white flowers arranged singly in leaf axils.

<i>Leucopogon capitellatus</i> Species of plant

Leucopogon capitellatus is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, more or less glabrous shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.2–1 m. It has linear to lance-shaped leaves longer than about 12 mm (0.47 in) long, tapering to a rigid point on the tip. The flowers are borne on short spikes on the ends of branches or in leaf axils on short side branches, with small bracts and bracteoles about half as long as the sepals. The sepals are broad, about 2 mm (0.079 in) long and the petals white and about 4 mm (0.16 in) long, the petal lobes longer than the petal tube.

<i>Leucopogon melaleucoides</i> Species of shrub

Leucopogon melaleucoides is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect, densely branched shrub with lance-shaped or egg-shaped leaves, and white, tube-shaped flowers arranged in spikes in upper leaf axils.

<i>Styphelia angustifolia</i> Species of plant

Styphelia angustifolia is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to eastern New South Wales. It is an erect shrub with lance-shaped to narrowly egg-shaped leaves and pale green, pendent flowers in summer.

References

  1. 1 2 "Eremophila serrulata". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Brown, Andrew; Buirchell, Bevan (2011). A field guide to the eremophilas of Western Australia (1st ed.). Hamilton Hill, W.A.: Simon Nevill Publications. p. 252. ISBN   9780980348156.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Chinnock, R.J. (Bob) (2007). Eremophila and allied genera : a monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae (1st ed.). Dural, NSW: Rosenberg. pp. 614–616. ISBN   9781877058165.
  4. 1 2 3 "Eremophila serrulata". State Herbarium of South Australia: eflora. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Chinnock, Robert. "Eremophila scoparia". Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, plantnet. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Stenochilus serrulatus". APNI. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  7. ↑ de Candolle, Alphonse (1847). "Myoporaceae". Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. 11: 715. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  8. ↑ "Eremophila serrulata". APNI. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 682.
  10. ↑ "Eremophila serrulata". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  11. ↑ Boschen, Norma; Goods, Maree; Wait, Russell (2008). Australia's eremophilas : changing gardens for a changing climate. Melbourne: Bloomings Books. pp. 165–166. ISBN   9781876473655.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.