Tuggeranong Lignum
Muelenbeckia tuggeranong
Sprawling shrub with branches growing to approximately 80 cm long forming a loose tangled mound of wiry stems, growing to 1 m high and 1-2 m across.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Flora Type | Shrubs |
| Distinctive Features | Attractive five-petalled star-shaped white flowers with pink anthers. |
| Biology | Perennial. River terraces and slopes in riparian woodland on medium to coarse-textured alluvuium, sands and gravels, and also in crevices amongst larger rock outcrops. Needs disturbance for germination largely from flooding. Germinates after fire. |
| Native Status | Native |
| Flowering Time | Dec-Jan |
| Taxonomy | |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Tracheophyta (Vascular Plants) |
| Class | Equisetopsida |
| Order | Caryophyllales |
| Family | Polygonaceae |
| Genus | Muelenbeckia |
| Species | tuggeranong |
Muehlenbeckia are named in honour of Alsatian bryologist Heinrich Gustav Muhlenbecka (1798-1845). Nationally listed as threatened. Known from a few sites on flood terraces on the eastern bank of the Murrumbidgee River south of Canberra. The sites were severely burned in the Canberra bushfires of 2003.
| Interesting Facts | |
|---|---|
| Native Status | Native |