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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Scrophulariaceae
Myoporum insulare

Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 516 (1810).

Synonymy: M, adscendens R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 516 (1810); M. serratum R. Br. var. obovatum Benth., Fl. Aust. 5:5 (1870). , Myoporum adscendens

Common name: Native juniper, common boobialla.

Description:
Spreading shrub 1-3 m tall; branches smooth or obscurely to prominently tuberculate; leaves alternate, scattered, thick and fleshy, lanceolate to oblanceolate to obovate, 30-70 x 6-20 mm, acute or obtuse, mucronate, margins entire or obscurely serrate in the distal half.

Flowers 2-8 per axil; pedicel 5.5-9 mm long, glabrous; sepals imbricate, fleshy portion triangular but with membranous wings on either side, more or less ovate and irregularly serrate, 1.5-2.5 x 0.8-1 mm, obtuse to truncate, mucronate; corolla 3-6 mm long, white often spotted on the lobes and upper tube, glabrous outside, inside of lobes pubescent, lobes obtuse; stamens included, glabrous; ovary glabrous, style glabrous or pubescent.

Fruit succulent, globular, bluish-purple, 6-8 mm diam., drying brown to blackish-brown, then 4-5 mm diam.

image of FSA3_Myoporum_ins.jpg Branch, flower and fruit. Leaf variation.
Image source: fig. 613C in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Costermans (1981 ) Native trees and shrubs of south-eastern Australia, p. 277.

Distribution:  Common along the coast on sandy soils.

S.Aust.: NU, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: mainly Aug. — Oct.


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

Biology: M. laetum Forster f., a New Zealand species, is also planted in the Adelaide region and can be confused with this species. It is readily distinguished from M. insulare by its larger softer leaves which when held up to the light have numerous translucent glands showing through them.

Uses: The species is widely planted in S.Aust. as a windbreak or a roadside shrub.

Author: Not yet available


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