Citation: Walp., Rep. Bot. Syst. 3:308 (1844).

Synonymy: Manulea divaricata Thunb., Prod. Pl. Cap. 101 (1800).

Common name: Spreading night-phlox.

Description:
Rigid annual 3-35 cm high, with stem erect, simple or with decumbent branches at the basal, rarely higher, nodes, white-eglandular-villous on branches, lower side of leaves and bracts, and calyx; leaves at the base of the plant and with a petiole 5-16 mm long, the blade ovate to ovate-elliptic, 5-33 x 2-14 mm long, shorter with petiole becoming almost absent and blade shorter higher up, discolorous, serrate to shallowly undulate, sparsely villous on the midrib below.

Flowers subsessile, up to 30 in dense terminal racemes which elongate in fruit; bracts sessile, like the upper leaves, longer than the calyx and adnate to its base; calyx tubular, 5-7.5 mm long, 5-ribbed, 2-lipped with a 3-toothed upper lip and an emarginate lower lip, the teeth narrow, acute; corolla glabrous, with a slender brown or yellow-green tube 16-20 mm long, with dense hairs around the rim, the 5 lobes spreading, oblong, obtuse, slightly unequal, 1.2-2.7 mm long, yellow with an orange-red streak down the mid-line above, brown to brown-purple below; anterior pair of anthers scarcely exserted, the posterior pair included in the corolla; style exserted up to 3 mm; capsule ovoid, 6-9 mm long, light-brown adjacent to the rigid remains of the corolla tube.

	Habit, flower, flower with corolla removed, fruit and limb of corolla.
Image source: fig. 589 in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  In usually sandy soil, in or by sclerophyllous woodland on margins of paddocks, tracks and other disturbed sites. S.Aust.: FR, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; Vic.   Native to southern Africa. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: late July — early Nov.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available