Purple apple-berry
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Apiales
Family: Pittosporaceae
Genus: Billardiera
Species:
B. longiflora
Binomial name
Billardiera longiflora
Synonyms[1]
  • Billardiera longiflora subsp. alpina Rodway nom. inval., pro syn.
  • Billardiera longiflora var. alpina Rodway
  • Billardiera longiflora Labill. var. longiflora
  • Labillardiera longiflora (Labill.) Schult.
Fruit

Billardiera longiflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to Tasmania. It is a woody twiner or climber that has variably-shaped, often elliptic leaves, often varying with altitude, and greenish-yellow, pendent, tube-shaped flowers arranged singly and turning blue as they age. This species is often confused with the similar Billardiera macrantha of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania.

Description

Billardiera longiflora is a woody twiner or climber, its new shoots hairy, but become glabrous with age. Its adult are leaves variably shaped, at lower altitudes, narrowly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 18–25 mm (0.71–0.98 in) long and 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) wide on a petiole 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long. At higher altitudes, the leaves are almost linear, 15–35 mm (0.59–1.38 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) wide. The flowers are arranged singly on a pendent peduncle 10–14 mm (0.39–0.55 in) long. The sepals are egg-shaped, 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long and purplish-blue. The petals are 16–24 mm (0.63–0.94 in) long, greenish-yellow, turning blue as they age, and joined at the base, the lobes spreading but not turned back. Flowering mostly occurs in summer and the mature fruit is a glossy purple berry 13–20 mm (0.51–0.79 in) long, the seeds about 1.8 mm (0.071 in) long.[2]

Taxonomy

Billardiera longiflora was first formally described in 1805 by Jacques Labillardière in his Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen.[3][4] The specific epithet (longiflora) means "long-flowered",[5] but this species has shorter flowers that the more common B. macrantha with which it is often confused.[2]

Distribution and habitat

This species of billardiera only occurs in eucalypt woodland and forest in Tasmania.[2][6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Billardiera longiflora". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Billardiera longiflora". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  3. ↑ "Billardiera longiflora". APNI. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  4. ↑ Labillardière, Jacques (1805). Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen. Paris. pp. 64–65. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  5. ↑ Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 242. ISBN 9780958034180.
  6. ↑ Jordan, Greg. "Billardiera longiflora". University of Tasmania. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
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