Billardiera cymosa
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Billardiera cymosa, commonly known as sweet apple-berry or love fruit,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is usually a slender climber that has narrowly egg-shaped leaves and pale blue or pale purplish flowers arranged in groups of about five to twelve.
Description
Billardiera cymosa is usually a slender climber or twiner that has its new shoots softly-hairy, later glabrous and reddish-brown. The adult leaves are arranged alternately, narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly elliptic or almost linear, Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide on a short petiole. The flowers are arranged in corymbs of about five to twelve with softly-hairy bracts and bracteoles but that fall off as the flowers open. The sepals are yellowish-green or brown, lance-shaped, Template:Cvt long and the petals pale blue or pale purplish and Template:Cvt long, forming a tube with spreading lobes. Flowering occurs from October to January and the mature fruit is a dark purple berry Template:Cvt long containing many seeds.[1][2][3]
Taxonomy
Billardiera cymosa was first formally described in 1855 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Flora Australiensis in Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science.[4][5] The specific epithet (cymosa) means "cymose".[6]
In 2004, Lindy Cayzer, Michael Douglas Crisp and Ian Telford described two subspecies of B. cymosa in Australian Systematic Botany, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
- Billardiera cymosa F.Muell. subsp. cymosa[7] has leaves Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide, the sepals Template:Cvt long, and the ovary silky hairy.[8][9]
- Billardiera cymosa subsp. pseudocymosa (F.Muell. ex Klatt) L.W.Cayzer & Crisp, (previously known as Billardiera pseudocymosa F.Muell. ex Klatt[10] has leaves Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide, the sepals Template:Cvt long, and the ovary glabrous.[11][12]
Distribution and habitat
Sweet apple-berry grows in mallee and eucalypt woodland in the south-east of South Australia and western Victoria. Subspecies cymosa is found on the Yorke Peninsula and in the Southern Lofty and Murray Basin areas, extending into the Wimmera region of western Victoria.[8][9] Subspecies pseudocymosa mainly occurs on the Eyre Peninsula but also in parts of the Eyre Peninsula with subsp. cymosa, and on the northern plains of Victoria from Wyperfeld to Mildura.[11][12]
References
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