Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Epilobium billardiereanum

Flower and leaves (subsp. billardierianum) © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Flowering plant (subsp. cinereum). Photographer Don Wood, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, ACT

Flowering and seeding stems (subsp. hydrophilum). Photographer Don Wood, Nalbaugh Creek above the falls, east of Eden

Line drawings i. (subsp. billardierianum) flowering stem; seed. j. (subsp. cinereum) leaf; k. (subsp. hydrophilum) leaves. © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Common name

Willow herb

subsp. cinereum:  Hairy willow herb

Family

Onagraceae

Where found

subsp. billardiereanum:  Moist sandy places and sand dunes. Coast. Ranges south of Bermagui.

subsp. cinereum:  Forest, woodland, grassland, and gardens, moist places, and water courses. Widespread

subsp. hydrophilum:  Forest, woodland, moist sites including along streams and drainage channels, often in water. Widespread.

Notes

Perennial herb to about 1 m high, stoloniferous. Often woody near the base. Stems often fleshy, hairy with curly hairs, occasionally restricted to lines running down from the leaf bases, often with glandular and simple hairs in the flowering region. Lower leaves opposite each other, leaves in the flowering region alternating up the stem. Leaves 0.5–8 cm long, 1–20 mm wide. Flowers purplish pink to pink or white, with 4 petals 3-13 mm long. Flowers usually with a ring of long hairs inside the floral tube. Flowering: spring–autumn. Seed cases 3–7.5 cm long; hairy, often with a mixture of glandular or erect hairs; on stalks to 6–20 mm long

subsp. billardiereanum:   Stems little branched, without hairs in the flowering region. Leaves 6–20 mm wide, hairless except for the margins and veins, with 16–40 small regular teeth on each side. Flowers white at least at first.

subsp. cinereum:  Stems well branched, with hairs in the flowering region. Stems often with short leafy shoots in the leaf axils. Leaves 1–7 mm wide, often looking greyish, usually hairy at least when young, later becoming hairless, coarsely toothed with 1-8 teeth on each side. Flowers usually purplish pink.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

subsp. hydrophilum:  Stems well branched with hairs in the flowering region. Leaves 2–18 mm wide, hairless except for the margins and veins, with 4–12 small regular teeth on each side. Flowers white, pink, or purplish.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

Definite identification of Epilobium species requires microscopic examination of the seeds.

 PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Epilobium~billardiereanum  (accessed 14 January, 2021)