Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Lobelia purpurascens

Common name

Whiteroot

Family

Campanulaceae

Where found

Shady wet areas in forest, woodland, grassland, and disturbed sites. Widespread.

Notes

Perennial herb, prostrate or sprawling to upright. Stems often more than 0.30 m long, sometimes rooting at the nodes, sometimes zigzagged, hairless. Leaves alternating along the stems, 0.4-2.8 cm long, 2.5-12 mm wide, margins toothed, upper surface often hairy with minute hairs, lower surface purplish. Male and female flowers on different plants. Flowers white tinged pink, pale purplish pink, or bluish to mauve, often purplish on the outside of the tube, 6-12 mm long, tubular, the tube split almost to the base on the upper side, 2-lipped, the upper lip with 2 small narrow lobes, the lower lip with 3 spreading lobes. Flowers single. Flowering: October–June.

Rare Vic.

Was Pratia purpurascens.

Family was Lobeliaceae.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lobelia~purpurascens (accessed 14 January, 2021)