Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Billardiera fusiformis

Flowering stem. Photographer Ian McMaster, WA

Flowering stems. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Line drawings (as Sollya heterophylla). e. flowering stem; f. flower (front segments removed); g. fruit. EM
Mayfield, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

Bluebell Creeper

Family

Pittosporaceae

Where found

Open forest, woodland, shrubland, and disturbed sites. Mainly Sydney and Blue Mountains. Rarely elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced woody twining climber,  rarely bushy. Readily produces shoots from its underground rootstock if its aboveground parts are damaged. Fruit firmly fleshy. Young stems densely hairy. Older stems reddish-brown or greyish-brown and somewhat angular. Leaves alternating up the stems, 2–5 cm long, 2–18 mm wide, both surfaces covered in soft hairs, becoming hairless, margins entire to slightly wavy. Flowers blue to mauve, pink, or white, with 5 petals 6-12 mm long. Flowers nodding, in 1–5 flowered clusters. Flowering: spring-summer. Fruit green to purple-black, edible, to 35 mm long.

Native of WA.

Was included in Sollya heterophylla.

VICFLORA description:  https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/038f2334-a484-413c-8c81-def4a41e61a0  (accessed 6 February 2021)

Description partly based on Cayzer, L.W., Crisp, M.D. & Telford, I.R.H. (2004), Cladistic analysis and revision of Billardiera (Pittosporaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 17(1): 118-119, Figs 34, 35 (map)