Gomphocarpus physocarpus
E.Mey.Shrub to 2.5 m high; stems few, pubescent, glabrescent with age. Leaves opposite, sometimes sub-opposite or crowded near the ends of branches, lanceolate, 4–9(–12) cm long, 0.5–1.5(–2) cm wide, apex acute, base cuneate, margins thickened, glabrescent or sparsely pubescent, soft, not prominently veined, sparsely pubescent above, with soft white hairs on midrib below; petiole 3–12 mm long. Inflorescences 5–12-flowered; peduncles 1.5–3.5 cm long, erect, densely pubescent or tomentose. Pedicels (10–)15–20(–30) mm long, densely pubescent, usually erect at anthesis, contorted in fruit; sepals lanceolate, 3–4 mm long, free almost to base, pubescent; corolla-lobes ovate or lanceolate-ovate, 5–8 mm long, ciliate, white or cream to greenish cream; corona-lobes sloping downwards away from gynostemium, white. Follicles globose or subglobose, 5–7.5 cm long, 4–7 cm diam., apex rounded, without a beak, erect at maturity, covered with soft bristles or spines to c. 1 cm long; seeds c. 4.5 mm long, c. 2 mm wide, coma hairs c. 3 cm long. Recorded flowering in Victoria Jan.–Feb.
VVP, GipP. Native to southern Africa. Known in Victoria from a 1926 collection from Stradbroke in south Gippsland and from at least 210 naturalized plants in a weedy nature strip adjacent to a disused factory in Brunswick, a suburb of Melbourne.
Forms with slightly beaked follicles have been collected in Australia outside of Victoria and in Africa and are suspected of being hybrids with Gomphocarpus fruticosus (Forster 1996; Goyder & Nicholas 2001).
Spinning
