Eremophila longifolia
| Berrigan | |
|---|---|
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| E. longifolia in Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Scrophulariaceae |
| Genus: | Eremophila |
| Species: | E. longifolia |
| Binomial name | |
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Eremophila longifolia (R.Br.) F.Muell. |
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| Synonyms | |
Eremophila longifolia, known by a range of common names including berrigan, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with weeping branches, long, narrow leaves and brick-red or pink flowers and is found in all Australian mainland states and the Northern Territory.
Eremophila longifolia is a shrub or small tree growing to a height of between 1 and 8 m (3 and 30 ft). It frequently forms suckers and dense stands of clones of the shrub are common. Its branches often have a covering of fine, yellow to reddish brown hairs. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches and are linear to lance-shaped, often sickle-shaped and often have a hooked end. They are mostly 50–160 mm (2–6 in) long, 3–8 mm (0.1–0.3 in) wide, taper towards both ends and have a prominent mid-vein on the lower surface.
The flowers are borne in groups of up to 5 in leaf axils on stalks mostly 4–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long. There are 5 green, egg-shaped, tapering, hairy sepals which are mostly 2–7 mm (0.08–0.3 in) long. The petals are mostly 20–30 mm (0.8–1 in) long and are joined at their lower end to form a tube. The petal tube is brick-red to pink, sometimes spotted inside with darker red. The inside and outside of the tube are covered with hairs, more densely so on the outside. The 4 stamens extend beyond the end of the petal tube. Flowering occurs at different times in different parts of the country. In Western Australia it mainly occurs between March and November, in southern Queensland during spring and summer but in the Riverina area of New South Wales there is no distinct flowering season. In most places, flowers may appear in any season, depending on rainfall. The fruits which follow are oval to almost spherical in shape, 5–12 mm (0.2–0.5 in) long and are yellow at first, then turn brown and finally black.
The first formal description of the species was published by Robert Brown in 1810 who gave it the name Stenochilus longifolius. The description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. In 1860, Ferdinand von Mueller changed the name to Eremophila longifolia. The specific epithet () is derived from the Latin words longus meaning "long" and folium meaning "leaf".
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Wikipedia