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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Polygalaceae
Comesperma scoparium

Citation: J.L. Drumm., J. Bot.(Hooker) 2:369 (1840).

Synonymy: Bredemeyera scoparia (J.L. Drumm.)Chodat ex Ewart, Census Vic. Pl. 40 (1923).

Common name: Broom milkwort.

Description:
Erect perennial, to 55 cm high; branched from the base and above; stems erect, stiff, terete, sulcate, glabrous; leaves reduced to triangular seales 1.5-2 mm long; flowers solitary in the leaf-scale axils

Pedicels to 2 mm long; bracts several at the base of each pedicel, imbricate, concave, ovate to very widely ovate, persistant; outer sepals free, one-half to three-quarters as long as the wings; wings c. 5 mm long, very widely obovate, tapering to a short claw; lateral petals c. 5 mm long, oblanceolate; keel petal c. 4 mm long, with 2 lateral lobes, united to the staminal tube for half its length; stamens free above the middle of the filaments; ovary glabrous; style 2-lobed.

Capsule 5-6 mm long, obovate-cuneate, with a thick rim; seeds 2.5-3 mm long, oblong, pubescent, without a coma, raphe extending along its length and extending into a pubescent terminal membrane c. 2 mm long.

image of FSA2_Comesperma_sco.jpg Comesperma scoparium twig, flower and fruit.
Image source: fig 417c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Erickson et al. (1973) Flowers-and plants of Western Australia, fig. 352.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, EP, MU, YP, SE.   W.Aust.; Vic.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: July — Oct.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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