Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Araujia sericifera

Common name

Moth Vine, Mothplant, White Bladder-flower, False Choko

Family

Apocynaceae

Where found

Forestwoodland, disturbed sites, roadsides, and along streams. Mainly coastal north from Jervis Bay, and the Blue Mountains. ACT. Occasional elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced perennial climber with twining stems to 20 m or more high. Stems finely ribbed, white-hairy when young, becoming hairless with age. Leaves opposite each other, 3–12 cm long, 10–60 mm wide, upper surface green and sparsely hairy, lower surface glaucous and hairy with minute hairs, bases squared off to slightly cordate, tips pointed and with a mucro. Flowers 20–25 mm in diameter, white, cream, pale pink, or mauve, with a bell-shaped tube and 5 lobes. Flowers in 1–5-flowered clusters. Fruit at first soft and fleshy, pale blue-green or grey-green, more or less glaucous, turning woody and brown when ripe. Flowers Summer to Autumn. Poisonous when eaten. Sap causes skin and eye irritation.

Family was Asclepiadaceae.

General Biosecurity Duty all NSW.

PlantNET descrription:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Araujia~sericifera  (accessed 8 April 2021)