Limonium australe (R.Br.) Kuntze

Native Sea Lavender

Perennial herb to about 50 cm tall. Basal leaves 4-8 cm long, more or less oblanceolate, 1-3 cm wide, entire, hairless. Flowering stems angled or ribbed but not winged, stem leaves scaly or absent. Flowers with sepals white to pink about 6-8 mm long, petals yellow; spring.

Vic, Tas, NSW, Qld

Grows naturally in coastal salt marshes.

Flowering stems angled but not ribbed; flowers with yellow petals (cf. L. otolepis and L. sinense below).

 

L. otolepis (Schrank) Kuntze, Lacy Sea Lavender, is a naturalised Asian plant that is occasionally grown in gardens and differs in having almost round stem leaves that are more than 1 cm wide and sepals about 2 mm long.

L. sinense (Girard) Kuntze from China is sometimes offered; it has obo­vate leaves to 5 cm long, pinkish white sepals and yellow petals.

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Plumbaginaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Hero image
kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Caryophyllanae
order      Caryophyllales
family       Plumbaginaceae
genus        Limonium Mill.