Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Comesperma defoliatum

Flower. Photographer John Tann, Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve near Port Macquarie

Plant base. Photographer John Tann, Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve near Port Macquarie

Flowering plant. Photographer John Tann, Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve near Port Macquarie

Common name

Leafless Milkwort

Family

Polygalaceae

Where found

Forest, wet heath, and swamps. Coast, ranges, and tablelands.

Notes

Shrub to 0.6 m high with few to numerous erect more or less leafless stems arising annually from a woody rhizome. Stems angled, more or less ridged, hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.5–1.5 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, rarely seen and then only on the lower part of the plant. Flowers blue to purple, 3–5 mm long, with 3 petals in the middle of the flower, the largest looking like the keel of a pea flower, and 2 coloured sepals that look like the wings of a pea flower. Wing sepals mostly 2–3 mm long. Flowers appearing single, in open clusters up the stems. Seed cases oval, with a long narrow base, 6.5–11 mm long. Flowering: November–May. Seed cases with a narrow wing.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Comesperma~defoliatum (accessed 1 April 2021)