Coleonema pulchellum
I.Williams DiosmaRather densely branched, often yellowish shrub to 1.5(–3) m high; branchlets hispidulous, soon glabrous. Leaves linear or very narrow-elliptic, 7–12 mm long, c. 1 mm wide, glabrous or margins sometimes ciliolate, apex acuminate, weakly pungent; petiole c. 1 mm long. Flowers crowded in upper axils; peduncle-pedicel c. 1.5 mm long; basal bracts c. 0.5 mm long, upper bracts and bracteoles to 1.5 mm long, acute, keeled, ciliolate along upper margins. Sepals acute, erect, 2–3 mm long, resembling bracts but margins more prominently fringed; petals spathulate, c. 5 mm long, expanded in upper part to an obovate limb, 2–3 mm long and wide, rounded, with an apiculate apex, white to mid-pink (sometimes purplish in bud); stamen filaments free, about as long as petal claws, staminodes slightly shorter, largely fused to petal claw, free in terminal 1 mm; style vestigial at anthesis, elongating to c. 1.5 mm long. Fruiting segments 4–5 mm long, with dorsal 'horn' c. 1.5 mm long; seed elliptic, 2.5–3 mm long. Flowers Jul.–Oct.
VVP, GipP, OtP, CVU, HSF. Also naturalised WA, SA, Tas. Potentially occurring wherever plants are grown or seed carried, but apparently favouring near-coastal heathland and heathy woodland, particularly in the Anglesea-Torquay area.
Seed appears to be long-lived and seedlings have been observed many years after removal of parent plants.