Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Solanum linearifolium
Common name
Mountain kangaroo apple
Family
Solanaceae
Where found
Forest, woodland, grassy areas, and disturbed sites, often appearing after fires. Widespread. Rare on the Western Slopes and in Kosciuszko National Park.
Notes
Shrub or small tree to 4 m high, sparsely hairy with simple and glandular hairs. Prickles absent. Fruit fleshy. Branchlets often purplish, cylindrical to scarcely angular and ridged. Leaves alternating up the stems, 3.5–40 cm long, margins lobed or entire, surfaces green and sparsely hairy, tips pointed. Entire leaves 3-15 mm wide, lobes on deeply lobed leaves 20–120 mm long, 5–10 mm wide. In the Sydney area and the ACT leaves are often entire. Flowers purple to violet, 20–45 mm in diameter, often pentagonal, with 5 lobes. Flowers in clusters of 3-10. Flowering: chiefly spring–summer. Fruit yellow to orange, sometimes with purple or reddish to brown markings, 11–20 mm in diameter.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Rare Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Solanum~linearifolium (accessed 6 February, 2021)
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