Eremophila polyclada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Twiggy emu-bush | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Scrophulariaceae |
| Genus: | Eremophila |
| Species: | E. polyclada |
| Binomial name | |
| Eremophila polyclada | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Eremophila polyclada, commonly known as twiggy emu-bush, flowering lignum, lignum fuchsia and desert lignum is a plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a dense, spreading shrub with narrow leaves and white to pale lilac-coloured, purple-spotted flowers. It occurs in all mainland states except Western Australia.
Eremophila polyclada is a dense, spreading shrub which grows to a height of 1–3 m (3–10 ft) and a width of 1–5 m (3–20 ft). Its branches diverge at about 90° to each other and are stiff, often with a spine at the end. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches and are linear in shape, mostly 20–40 mm (0.8–2 in) long, 1–3 mm (0.04–0.1 in) wide and are often sticky when young due to the presence of resin.[2][3][4][5]
The flowers are borne singly or in pairs in leaf axils on a stalk 1–2.5 mm (0.04–0.1 in) long. There are 5 green, overlapping sepals which are egg-shaped, have a prominent keel, thin, wing-like edges and are mostly 4.5–7 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long. The petals are 20–35 mm (0.8–1 in) long, joined at their bases to form a tube. The petal tube is white to very pale whitish-lilac and has faint blackish to green purple spots on the inside of the lobes and purple spots inside the tube. The tube and petal lobes are glabrous except that the middle part of the lowest lobe and the inside of the tube are hairy. The 4 stamens are fully enclosed in the tube. Flowers appear between October and May and are followed by fruits which are oval-shaped, cone-shaped or elliptical with a pointed and are 8.5–13 mm (0.3–0.5 in) long.[2][3][4][5]
Taxonomy and naming
The species was first formally described by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1855 as Pholidia polyclada.[6] The description was published in Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia.[7] In 1860 Mueller changed the name to Eremophila polyclada.[8][9] The specific epithet (polyclada) is derived from the ancient Greek words polys (πολύς), meaning "many" and klados (κλάδος) meaning "twig".[10]