Common Name

Mallee Annual -bluebell

Family

Campanulaceae

Notes

Perennial forb to 90cm tall. Leaves alternating up the stems, sometimes the lowermost leaves opposite each other on the stem, 0.2-6cm long, 0.2-12mm wide, flat, becoming linear up the stem, the edges sometimes with small teeth, flat or wavy. Lower leaves more or less hairy, upper leaves hairless. Flowers blue to mauve to purple, sometimes pink or white, tubular, with 5 lobes, in open groups at the tops of the stems. Rare Vic.

Differs from Wahlenbergia communis , Wahlenbergia queenslandica, and Wahlenbergia stricta ssp. alterna in that the free flower lobes are 2-7mm in length, from Wahlenbergia gracilis in that the fruiting bodies appear swollen, and from Wahlenbergia fluminalis, Wahlenbergia littoricola, Wahlenbergia luteola, and Wahlenbergia graniticola in that the free lobes of the flower are less than twice as long as the tube, and from Wahlenbergia gracilenta in that all the leaves are alternating up the stems.

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Wahlenbergia~tumidifructa

Line drawings of flowers and fruiting bodies of seven species of Wahlenbergia in this key (but not Wahlenbergia graniticola, Wahlenbergia luteola, or Wahlenbergia stricta ssp. alterna) in Flora of South Australia 4th edition, Handbooks Committee on behalf of the South Australian Government (1986), Volume 3, page 1382