Ellura Sanctuary: Vines

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Carrots (Apiales); 1 species, none from Ellura - Pittosporum (Pittosporaceae); 1 species, none from Ellura

Sweet Apple-berry
Billardiera cymosa ssp cymosa

iNaturalist

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Thank you (Pennywort_Man ) for confirming the id of this species for us

A slender climber. We put all climbers and creepers under "Vines"

Imaged 3 in Oct

🔍Large

🔍Habit

🔍Flower

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Betalains (Caryophyllales); 5 species, 2 from Ellura - Ice Plant (Aizoaceae); 3 species, 2 from Ellura

Lens Pigface
Carpobrotus sp

iNaturalist

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Synonym: Carpobrotus rossii

Other Common Name: Pig Face

Thank you Ralph Foster for identifying this species for us

Large triangular, green to purple, succulent, vertical leaves.
Brilliant purple flower with white centre.
Sprawling habit that can completely cover square metres of ground.
We thought this was C. modestus, but recently found an SA factsheet that indicates that the size of flower for C. modestus <= 20mm (ours are >35mm) and that C. modestus has 20-80 stamen (ours have 100-600) are diagnostic. This factsheet points to Carpobrotus rossii; so we renamed our species as this.
Ralph then highlighted to us that the inland specimens of C. rossii are probably going to all be renamed; currently an undescribed species labelled Carpobrotus sp. Short calyx. Research is still ongoing to described them and provide morphological differences to separate out the two species.

Imaged 20(4Fl) in Feb(1), Mar(1), May(1), Jun(1), Jul(3), Aug(5:1Fl), Sep(6:2Fl) & Oct(2:1Fl)

Habit

🔍Patch

🔍Bud

🔍Flower

🔍Flower, above, size

🔍Flower, profile, the calyx

Galenia
Galenia secunda

iNaturalist

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Synonym: Aizoon secundum

Thank you Ernst Weiher for confirming the id of this species for us

Has white or pink flowers. It's much hairier than it's relation, Aizoon pubescens, which is also introduced in Australia and seems more common.

Imaged 3Fl in Sep(1Fl), Oct(1Fl) & Nov(1Fl)

🔍Patch

🔍Pink Flower

🔍White Flower

Desert Spinach
Tetragonia eremaea

iNaturalist

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Thank you Dr Manfred Jusaitis for confirming the id of this species for us

The flowers are tiny at only ~4mm tip to tip. As they are the same colour as the stem & leaf they are very hard to see. There are 2 flowers per leaf axis.

Imaged 2(1Fl) in Sep

🔍Habit

🔍2 Flowers per Leaf Axis

🔍Flower

🔍Size

🔍Leaf

🔍Back of Leaf

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Betalains (Caryophyllales); 5 species, 2 from Ellura - Four o'clock (Nyctaginaceae); 1 species, none from Ellura

Tah-vine
Boerhavia dominii

iNaturalist

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Other Common Name: Tar-vine

Thank you Tony and Jenny Dominelli for confirming the id of this species for us

Imaged 1Fl in Nov

🔍Flowers

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Betalains (Caryophyllales); 5 species, 2 from Ellura - Knotweed (Polygonaceae); 1 species, none from Ellura

Coastal Climbing Lignum
Muehlenbeckia gunnii

iNaturalist

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Other Common Names: Coastal Lignum or Native Sarsparilla

Thank you Alan Dandie (Alan_Dandie) for confirming the id of this species for us

Imaged 3Fl in Oct

🔍Leaves

🔍Bud & Flower

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Vines (Cucurbitales); 2 species, none from Ellura - Gourd (Cucurbitaceae); 2 species, none from Ellura

Paddymelon
Citrullus colocynthis

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Other Common Name: Paddy Melon

These can grow much larger than shown here. But this is a good comparision between the smooth and prickly paddymelons, as well as a mallee leaf

Imaged 1 in Jun

Fruit

Fruit, compared with large glove

Prickly Paddymelon
Cucumis myriocarpus ssp myriocarpus

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Other Common Names: Gooseberry Cucumber or Paddy Melon

Imaged 1 in Jun

Fruit

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Legumes (Fabales); 1 species, none from Ellura - Legume (Fabaceae or Leguminosae); 1 species, none from Ellura

Most species in this family have an orchid like flower, a pea flower, with two petals protruding out the front (often referred to as a beak; aka bird beak) then 2 vertical petals making a bit of a face. The vertical petals are often fused together, but usually have a notch at the top, in the middle, where they would separate into 2 petals.
One notable exception to these flowers are the Wattles (Acacia sp) which all have identical flowers; eucalypt like petalless afairs with the stamens making a round ball. The species in this genus are separated based on leaf shape, seed aril and how the flowers are arranged (on peduncles, or not, single or grouped, etc).
The other exception are the Senna's. These have 5 yellow petals arrange in a cup shape.

Native Lilac
Hardenbergia violacea

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Other Common Name: Happy Wanderer

Imaged 4 in Aug(3) & Oct(1)

Leaves & Vines

Buds & Flowers

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Laurales (Laurales); 1 species, none from Ellura - Laurels (Lauraceae); 1 species, none from Ellura

Course Dodder-laurel
Cassytha melantha

iNaturalist

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Thank you Peter Crowcroft for confirming the id of this species for us

Imaged 1 in Mar

🔍

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Spurges, Violets & Allies (Malpighiales); 1 species from Ellura - Spurge (Euphorbiaceae); 1 species from Ellura

Caustic Spurge
Anisophyllum sp

iNaturalist

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Synonyms: Chamaesyce drummondii or Euphorbia drummondii

Other Common Names: Caustic Creeper, Caustic Weed, Creeping Caustic, Flat Spurge, Mat-spurge or Milkweed

Thank you Dr Kym Nicolson for confirming the id of this species for us

We used to have this down as Euphorbia drummondii, then some years ago they split them into over 10 different species.
Dr Nathan Taylor said on iNaturalist "The plants can't be keyed without looking at seeds."
Since we've never collected the seed, we don't know which of this Anisophyllum section (a subset of the Euphorbia genus) they are.

Imaged 31(1Fl,1Fr) in Jan(3), Feb(4), Mar(9), Apr(3), May(4), Jun(1), Jul(1), Aug(4), Sep(1) & Oct(1:1Fl,1Fr)

Whole

Leaves & Stems

Flowers & Young Fruit

Over-ripe Fruit

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Myrtles (Myrtales); 1 species, none from Ellura - Myrtle (Myrtaceae); 1 species, none from Ellura

Muntries
Kunzea pomifera

iNaturalist

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Thank you Alan Dandie (Alan_Dandie) for confirming the id of this species for us

While classed as a "prostrate shrub", we think anyone coming to our web site to find out what this plant is would look under our "Vines" (creepers & climbers) page; hence it's current location. Let us know what you think.
A typical white eucalypt / melaleuca type flower that Myrtales have, with red highlights; yet scattered around the ground.
They are well known for their fruits/berries.

Imaged 4(2Fl) in Jul(2) & Oct(2Fl)

🔍Whole

🔍In Bud & Flower

🔍Flower, profile

🔍Flower, above

Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Buttercups (Ranunculales); 1 species from Ellura - Buttercup (Ranunculaceae); 1 species from Ellura

Old Man's Beard
Clematis microphylla

iNaturalist

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Thank you Alan Dandie (Alan_Dandie) for confirming the id of this species for us

Creamy large flowers with 4 long oval petals.
Green leaves. New stems are green going dark reddish brown with age.

Imaged 12(3Fl,1Fr) in May(1), Aug(4:1Fl), Sep(2Fl), Oct(2) & Nov(3:1Fr)

Whole

Structure

🔍Flower

🔍Seeding

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