Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Wahlenbergia ceracea
Common name
Waxy bluebell
Family
Campanulaceae
Where found
Moist sites in heath, grassland, along streams, and around and in swamps at high montane to alpine altitudes. Ranges, tablelands, ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park.
Notes
Perennial herb to 1.15 m high, with spreading rhizomes. Stems at first sprawling, finally erect, mostly unbranched, occasionally 1- or 2-branched, hairless or sometimes sparsely rough-hairy towards the base. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.5–5 cm long, 1–10 mm wide, usually hairless, margins usually flat, sometimes more or less wavy but less so than Wahlenbergia gloriosa, often toothed, tips more or less blunt to pointed. Flowers sky blue to pale violet, occasionally white, often whitish outside, with a bell-shaped tube 3-9 mm long, and 5 lobes 10–23 mm long. Corolla lobes with long drawn out points. Stigma usually with 3 lobes, occasionally 2. Flowers single or 2-3 per stem, nodding in bud. Flowering: summer-autumn.
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=Wahlenbergia~ceracea (accessed 8 February, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
