Shrub to 1 m high; stems finely ribbed, hairy when young, glabrescent with age. Leaves linear-lanceolate to narrow-elliptic, 3–18 cm long, 5–25 mm wide, apex acute, base attenuate, margins tightly inrolled, soft, thin, glabrescent with age; petiole 2–20 mm long. Inflorescences usually 5–9-flowered; peduncles mostly 3–5 cm long. Flowers on pedicels 10–25 mm long; sepals lanceolate, c. 4 mm long, free almost to base, scabrous; corolla-lobes ovate-lanceolate, c. 8 mm long, dark red; gynostemium orange-yellow, corona-lobes ovate, c. 4 mm long. Follicles lanceolate in outline, 6–9 cm long, c. 1 cm wide, glabrous or minutely pubescent, tapered into a narrow beak; seeds c. 6 mm long, c. 3 mm wide, coma hairs c. 1.5 cm long Flowers spring–autumn.
GipP, Gold. Also naturalised WA, SA, Qld, NSW. Native to Central America. Reported as a weed of irrigation areas near Mildura and as a plant growing in a paddock near Bairnsdale.
Source:
Jeanes, J.A. (1999). Asclepiadaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 325–332. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
