Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Wahlenbergia gracilis
Common name
Sprawling bluebell, Australian bluebell
Family
Campanulaceae
Where found
Open forest, woodland, lawns, roadsides, gardens, disturbed sites, and footpaths. Widespread.
Notes
Perennial herb to 1 m tall or sprawling. Stems hairless to sparsely hairy with coarse, moderately stiff hairs. Leaves alternating up the stems, sometimes the lowermost opposite each other, 0.2-7 cm long, 0.2-10 mm wide, becoming linear on the upper stems, hairless, the lower leaves sometimes sparsely hairy with coarse, moderately stiff hairs, margins entire or sometimes with small teeth, and sometimes wavy, tips blunt to pointed. Flowers blue to mauve, sometimes pink or white, tubular, with 5 lobes (sometimes 3 or 4), each 1.5-6 mm long. Stigma with 2-3 lobes. Free lobes of the flower less than twice as long as the tube. Flowers in clusters. Flowers all year.
Hybrids between Wahlenbergia littoricola and Wahlenbergia gracilis have been recorded.
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~gracilis (accessed 8 February, 2021)
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