Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Fumaria officinalis

Flowers and leaves. Photographer JC Schou, Denmark.

Flower stalk and leaves (subsp. wirtgenii) Photographer Jackie Miles

Flowering stems. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer AN Schmidt-Lebuhn, Koorawatha Nature Reserve south of Cowra

Common name

Common Fumitory

Family

Papaveraceae

Where found

Weed.

subsp. officinalis:  Mainly Sydney area. Widespread elsewhere but not common.

subsp. wirtgenii:  Western Slopes.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 0.5 m tall, sometimes scrambling. Stems hairless. Leaves alternating along the stems, hairless, deeply dissected, appearing compound, fern-like, segments flat, more than 2 mm wide. Flowers usually 7–9 mm long, with 2 sepals, 1.5–3.5 mm long, with irregularly toothed margins, one on either side of the flower, soon falling, and 4 petals, purple-pink or white, with blackish tips, forming 2 lips, in 10-30-flowered clusters, the clusters longer than the flower stalk. Seed cases more or less wrinkled when dry.  

subsp. officinalis:  Flowers mostly in more than 20-flowered clusters. Sepals mostly 2–3.5 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide; smaller in flowers that self-pollinate without opening, or end-of-season flowers. Flowers spring to summer.

subsp. wirtgenii:  Flowers in 10–20-flowered clusters. Sepals 1.5–2 mm long, 1 mm wide. Flowers winter.

Family was Fumariaceae.

PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Fumaria~officinalis (accessed 17 January, 2021)