Myoporum oppositifolium

Last updated

Twin-leaf myoporum
Myoporum oppositifolium Beedelup Falls.jpg
Myoporum oppositifolium at Beedelup Falls in Beedelup National Park
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Genus: Myoporum
Species:
M. oppositifolium
Binomial name
Myoporum oppositifolium

Myoporum oppositifolium, commonly known as twin-leaf myoporum, is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is easily distinguished from others in the genus by the combination of glabrous leaves and branches, its opposite leaf arrangement and its serrated leaves. Its distribution is restricted to the extreme south-west of Western Australia.

Contents

Description

Myoporum oppositifolium is an erect shrub which grows to a height of 1–2 metres (3–7 ft) and has glabrous branches which usually have raised, wart-like tubercles. The leaves are also tuberculate, especially on the lower surface and are arranged in opposite pairs. The leaves are egg-shaped to narrow lance-shaped, 20–50 millimetres (0.8–2 in) long, 8–16 millimetres (0.3–0.6 in) wide and the leaf margins are serrated for their entire length. [2] [3]

The flowers appear in groups of one to four in the axils of the leaves on a stalk 6–11 millimetres (0.2–0.4 in) long. The flowers have 5 green or purplish sepals and 5 petals joined at their bases to form a tube. The tube is white, spotted purple on the bases of the lobes and on the top part of the tube, 2–3.2 millimetres (0.08–0.1 in) long, the lobes spreading and 2.5–4 millimetres (0.1–0.2 in) long. There are 4 stamens which extend slightly beyond the petals. Flowering occurs throughout the whole year and is followed by lilac to brown fruits which are drupes, 2.5–5 millimetres (0.1–0.2 in) in diameter and roughly spherical in shape. [2] [3]

Taxonomy and naming

Myoporum oppositifolium was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae . [1] [4] The specific epithet (oppositifolium) is derived from the Latin words oppositus, meaning "standing opposite" and folium, meaning "leaf". [5]

Distribution and habitat

Twin-leaf myoporum occurs along the coast of Western Australia from near Busselton to near Albany in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Warren biogeographic regions. [3] It grows in sand or loamy soil, often near karri, along watercourses and sometimes on coastal cliffs. [2] [6]

Conservation

Myoporum oppositifolium is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife. [3]

Related Research Articles

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

Eremophila oppositifolia, commonly known as weeooka, twin-leaf emu bush and mountain sandalwood, is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae, and is endemic to Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with its leaves arranged in opposite pairs and has cream to red or sometimes maroon coloured flowers. It occurs in all mainland states, but not the Northern Territory.

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

Eremophila debilis, commonly known as 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 lance-shaped leaves and white, rarely deep mauve flowers.

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

Eremophila scoparia, commonly known as silver emubush, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a broom-like shrub with narrow, hooked leaves, small sepals and deep lilac-coloured to white petals and is common and widespread in southern parts of the continent.

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

Eremophila deserti is a shrub which is endemic to Australia. Common names for this species include turkey bush, dogwood, poison bushEllangowan poison bush, pencil bush and carrot bush. It is common and widespread in all mainland states, although not the Northern Territory. Some forms are poisonous to stock.

<i>Myoporum insulare</i> Species of plant

Myoporum insulare, commonly known as common boobialla, native juniper, is a species of flowering plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to coastal areas of Australia. It is a shrub or small tree which grows on dunes and coastal cliffs, is very salt tolerant and widely used in horticulture.

<i>Myoporum parvifolium</i> Species of plant

Myoporum parvifolium, commonly known as creeping boobialla, creeping myoporum, dwarf native myrtle or small leaved myoporum is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is a low, spreading shrub with long, trailing stems and white, star-shaped flowers and is endemic to southern Australia including Flinders Island.

<i>Myoporum viscosum</i> Species of plant

Myoporum viscosum, commonly known as sticky boobialla, is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to South Australia. It is unusual in that sometimes, especially when the leaves are crushed, it has an extremely unpleasant smell.

<i>Myoporum floribundum</i> Species of shrub

Myoporum floribundum, commonly known as weeping myoporum or slender myoporum, is a sour-smelling glabrous shrub in the family Scrophulariaceae endemic to a small area of New South Wales and Victoria in Australia. It has long, thin, drooping leaves and profuse white flowers in clusters along the stems in spring. Although it is uncommon in nature, it has long been available as a popular garden plant.

<i>Anisomeles</i> Genus of flowering plants

Anisomeles is a genus of herbs of the family Lamiaceae and is native to China, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, Madagascar, and some Pacific and Indian Ocean islands. Plants in the genus Anisomeles have small, flat, narrow elliptic to narrow e.g.-shaped leaves arranged in opposite pairs, the edges of the leaves sometimes wavy or serrated. The flowers are arranged in groups, with five sepals and five petals in two "lips", the lower lip with three lobes, the middle lobe much longer than the side lobes. There are four stamens that extend beyond the petals and a single style in a depression on top of the ovary. The fruit is a schizocarp with four nutlets containing small seeds.

<i>Teucrium racemosum</i> Species of plant

Teucrium racemosum, commonly known as grey germander or forest germander, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to continental Australia. It is a perennial herb, with four-sided, densely hairy stems, narrow egg-shaped leaves, and white flowers usually arranged singly in leaf axils.

<i>Myoporum montanum</i> Species of plant

Myoporum montanum, commonly known as waterbush or boobialla, is a shrub native to Australia, New Guinea and Timor. The species is extremely variable in size growth habit and leaf form, with three primary forms recognised. Its occurrence in many places is restricted to coastal regions, watercourses and other locales with more reliable water supplies. It was this association with water that gave rise to the name water bush.

<i>Prostanthera denticulata</i>

Prostanthera denticulata, commonly known as rough mint-bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a straggling to almost prostrate, aromatic shrub with narrow egg-shaped leaves and purple to mauve flowers arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets.

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>Myoporum platycarpum</i> Species of plant

Myoporum platycarpum, known by several common names including sugarwood, false sandalwood and ngural is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is rounded with bright green foliage as a young shrub and roughly fissured, dark grey bark when mature. Sugarwood is endemic to the southern half of continental Australia.

<i>Pityrodia salvifolia</i>

Pityrodia salvifolia is a flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae and is endemic to Queensland. It is an erect, spreading shrub with aromatic, wrinkled or corrugated leaves and clusters of small flowers with white petals. It is mostly found in wet forests in coastal north Queensland.

Habenaria ochroleuca, commonly known as the sickle orchid or sickle habenaria, is a species of orchid that is endemic to northern Australia. It has two or three broad, glabrous leaves and up to twenty five white flowers on a flowering stem with many overlapping bracts. The side lobes of the labellum curve upwards.

<i>Prostanthera scutellarioides</i>

Prostanthera scutellarioides is a species of flowering plant that is endemic to New South Wales. It is an erect, or low-lying, faintly aromatic shrub with linear leaves and pale to deep mauve flowers arranged in leaf axils.

<i>Prostanthera violacea</i>

Prostanthera violacea, commonly known as violet mint-bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to south-eastern New South Wales. It is a slender, strongly aromatic shrub with densely hairy branches, more or less round leaves with the edges rolled under and mauve to bluish flowers often with white tips.

Goodenia coronopifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae and is endemic to north-western Australia. It is a herb with mostly linear leaves, those at the base of the plant divided with narrow segments, racemes of yellow flowers with brownish-purple markings, and more or less spherical fruit.

<i>Goodenia decurrens</i> Species of plant

Goodenia decurrens is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is an erect, glabrous undershrub with lance-shaped to elliptic, toothed leaves, yellow flowers arranged in racemes or thyrses, and oval fruit.

References

  1. 1 2 "Myoporum oppositifolium". APNI. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Chinnock, R.J. (Bob) (2007). Eremophila and allied genera : a monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae (1st ed.). Dural, NSW: Rosenberg. pp. 120–121. ISBN   9781877058165.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Myoporum oppositifolium R.Br". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
  4. Brown, Robert (1810). Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae (Volume 5). London. p. 516. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  5. Backer, C.A. (1936). Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs).
  6. Paczkowska, Grazyna; Chapman, Alex R. (2000). The Western Australian flora : a descriptive catalogue. Perth: Wildflower Society of Western Australia. p. 344. ISBN   0646402439.