Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Epilobium gunnianum

Common name

Gunn's willow-herb

Family

Onagraceae

Where found

Heath, alpine herbfields, grassland, stream banks, gullies, and swampy areas. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, ACT and west, tablelands, and ranges.

Notes

Perennial herb to about 0.8 m high, often with many leafy stolons. Stems hairy with curved hairs, with raised lines of hairs running down from the leaf-bases, often reddish. Lower leaves opposite each other, alternating up the stems near the flowers, 1–6 cm long, 2–20 mm wide, margins finely toothed and often wavy. Flowers with 4 deeply notched petals 5-18 mm long, purplish pink to purplish red,  mauve, pale pink, or white. A conspicuous ring of white hairs inside the short floral tube. Flowers single, sometimes appearing clustered. Flowering summer. Seed cases 3.5–7.5 cm long, hairy, with some glandular hairs; on stalks 3–15 mm long.

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

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

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Epilobium~gunnianum (accessed 12 January, 2021)