Common name: Climbing Apple Berry, Apple Berry, Snot Berry, Apple Dumblings, Changeable Flowered Billardiera
Billardiera mutabilis Salisb. APNI* Description: Slender, twining shrubs; new shoots silky hairy.
Leaves silky hairy. Adult leaves alternate, mainly narrowly elliptic, slightly flacate, 40–60 mm long, 4–10 mm wide, with both surface soon glabrescent; margin undulate; petiole 2–4 mm long.
Inflorescences consisting of mostly solitary flowers; peduncles 18–40 mm long, very slender, nodding, sparsely hairy. Sepals 6–10 mm long, linear, unequal lobes; margin incurving. Petals 16–23 mm long, clawed, green-yellow, apex and throat becoming tinged navy blue with age; apex recurved. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous, 2 X length of style; stigma eventually knobby.
Fruits indehiscent berries (with seeds embedded in fleshy mericarp), 16–20 mm long, obloid, green, glabrous. Seeds very numerous, 2–3 mm long, angular reniform.
Flowering: Flowers late spring and summer; fruiting probably late summer.
Distribution and occurrence: NSW, Vic. and Tas. Coastal moist sites in eucalypt forest and woodland.
NSW subdivisions: CC, SC, CT, ST, CWS
Other Australian states: Vic. Tas.
Dispersal of seeds by birds has increased the distribution of this species.
Text by B.J. Conn
Taxon concept: L.W. Cayzer, M.D. Crisp & I.R.N. Telford (2004)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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