PLANTS FOR SPECIAL PLACES
1. Shady and Wet

BEDFORDIA SALICINA       Asteraceae
Bedfordia salicina



Shrub to small tree. H. 2-5 m.  W.2-3m. 
Leaves arranged alternately around the stem, elliptical, 6-10 cm long. undulate with prominent veins, dark green upper surface, and silver-hairy below. The young wood is hairy white. 

Flowering in spring, when yellow daisy heads arise from the stem axils in multiple groups.  
Fruit : an achene (one-seeded dry, thin walled formed from one carpel, which does not open to release the seed.).

Habitat: common and widespread in wet gullies and wet sclerophyll forests at low altitudes.

Cultivation:  adaptable but grows best in shade or semi-shade and with some moisture. Propagates readily from seed or with difficulty from cuttings.


Shrub or small tree with slender trunk and thin spreading branches, bark grey, upper twigs
covered with white tomentum (fur).  Leaves alternate, narrow-linear to 9 cm long, margins revolute, under surfaces white with stellate hairs. Flower heads clear golden yellow, white
stalked, one or two in each axil of many leaves near the ends of branches making a showy mass but flowers much shorter than the subtending leaves. Daisy-type head with all florets tubular, head 6 mm across. Phyllaries green with white felted hairs, inner ones with shining scarious margins. Pappus bristles long, white. Flowering  December-January. Widespread in wet eucalypt forests and on rocky hillsides.
Tas endemic.
              BEDFORDIA LINEARIS                    Asteraceae
Bedfordia linearis


       EPACRIS OBTUSIFOLIA                        Epacridaceae
Epacris obtusifolia
      Information courtesy Launceston Field Naturalists Club

An easily recognised Heath. Flowers white or cream in spikes at ends of slender, often unbranched stems,
30 cm to 1 m. 
Leaves bright green, ovate-lanceolate, apex blunt, ridged on lower surface, usually impressed to stem.
Flowers solitary in leaf axils and forming long spikes, corolla tube longer than calyx. Flowering summer. Damp heaths and wet places.
Tas. Vic. NSW. SA.Qld.


Teucrium corymbosum
TEUCRIUM CORYMBOSUM                Lamiaceae
Forest germander

Erect shrub to 1 m. Toothed leaves, narrow-ovate, up to 11 cm and aromatic. Sprays of white flowers with a prominent lip are borne terminally on branches. Flowering spring and summer. 

Cultivation - hardy in most soils, but must be in shade for lush growth. Regular pruning will keep a tidy shape. Frost hardy.   Tas. Vic. NSW. SA





SOLANUM LACINIATUM                    Solanaceae
Kangaroo Apple

Although this plant often appears to be a very large herb it may grow to a shrub of 3 m tall. Leaves large, variable in shape from lanceolate, with a few coarse lobes near the base to narrow-lanceolate, 19-25 cm long.
Flowers on long stalks in few-flowered racemes, purple, almost circular, 5 cm diameter, petals joined forming a wide, flat, spreading corolla, thin and wrinkled at the margins, stamens prominent.
Fruit a drooping ovoid berry, 3 cm long, orange -yellow when ripe. Like all fruits in this family, which includes tomato and potato, the berries should not be eaten until very ripe.
Flowering for several months in summer.
Common in damp, shady places, often colonising disturbed patches 
Tas, Vic, SA, NSW and NZ

(Information courtesy of the
Launceston Field Naturalists Club.)


Solanum laciniatum

Solanum laciniatum fruits


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