Family: Polygonaceae
Muehlenbeckia cunninghamii
Citation:
F. Muell., Fragm. Phyt. Aust. 5:91 (1865).
Synonymy: Polygonum cunninghamii Meissner in DC., Prod. 14:85 (1856).
Common name: Lignum, tangled lignum.
Description:
Shrub with many intricate striate branches, usually 1-2 m high, the rigid branchlets often ending in a spine; leaves linear or lanceolate, caducous and usually absent from the older branches.
Flower-clusters in interrupted racemes, which are sometimes paniculate; female flowers shortly pedicellate: fruiting perianth c. 5 mm long, with a tube which is nearly as long as the lobes.
Nut ovoid-conical, trigonous, shining.
| Fruiting perianth (above) and fruit
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Image source: fig. 95c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Costermans (1981) Native trees and shrubs of south-eastern Australia, p. 172.
Distribution:
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All mainland States.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: Aug. — March.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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