Common name: Sky Flower
Duranta erecta L. APNI* Description: Shrub up to 7 m high. Branches drooping or trailing, unarmed or spiny, sparsely appressed hairy.
Leaves shortly petiolate; lamina ovate, elliptic or obovate, (15-)20–75(-90) mm long, (12-)15–50(-60) mm wide, sparsely appressed hairy, soon becoming subglabrous; base cuneate-attenuate; margin entire or coarsely serrate; apex obtuse, acute or shortly acuminate.
Inflorescence terminal and axillary, 10–30 cm long, racemes many-flowered. Flowers fragrant. Calyx tubular, 3–7 mm long, tube with 5 minute teeth. Corolla mauve, light bluish-purple or white, 9–18 mm long; tube extended beyond calyx; lobes ± equal in length.
Drupes globose, (5-)7–10(-14) mm diam., enclosed by orange fruiting calyx.
Flowering: Flowers summer – autumn.
Distribution and occurrence: Throughout subtropics and tropics. Found in moist or wet areas, particularly on river banks, roadsides, in scrubby vegetation of grazing paddocks, foreshore slopes in open forests, in sandy, gravely sandy, alluvial or granitic soils. Naturalised in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, India, China. Native throughout tropical to subtropical southern U.S.A. to Argentina.
NSW subdivisions: *NC
Other Australian states: *Qld *S.A. *N.T.
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
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.
|
