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Broadleaf List |
Nightshade Family [Solanaceae] |
Flowers: |
Berries: oval, to 30mm. Edible when ripe! |
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22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves are like a bit like tridents - having three tapering progs, the side ones shorter than the central, but the side ones are splayed out at an angle of maybe 30° and often there are two more side prongs set further back [see bottom right].
[Ignore the variegated leaves of some other plant behind it] |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers are a deep mauve in colour with what looks like a single petal but it has 5 shallow nicks on the periphery. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Newer leaves are a brighter green. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
It is a most striking plant as far as the leaves are concerned; there can be no mistaking it as Kangaroo-apple, which is shrubby with woody stems lower down. It grows to a height of 1m or up to 2m. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves have a pale indented midrib with several curved but unbranched veins which stop short of reaching the leaf edges. The flower stalk is long with branches to other potential flower buds (which are yet to open). |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The flower buds peel off a flowering stem alternately each side. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
What looks like a single petal but it has 5 shallow nicks on the periphery, plus many random wrinkles and lobes. There are 5 yellow anthers in the centre and a mauve style with discoidal stigma. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The sepal cup has 5 teeth and is a dirty purplish-brown with concolourant stalks. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
On the left a sepal cup with probably a smooth fruit which is developing and appears at first yellow. The latent flower on the right has the purple petal(s) neatly folded but ready to open. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
At top right a bunch of sepals awaiting maturity of the flowers within. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Sepal cups in various stages of fruiting - those are (probably?) not neatly-folded purple petal(s) but smooth developing fruits which are at first green and will grow larger going through yellow, orange. |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
22nd June 2016, a garden, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Flower buds yet to open. |
Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature : The tri-forked leaves.
There is another very similar Australian plant with the same It is an evergreen garden plant which sometimes finds itself tipped onto rough ground, or municipal tips. Also on seaside sand. It is not a hardy plant in the UK, succumbing if the temperature drops to more than -7°C, which is why it is probably doing well near the milder Sefton Coast where the temperature is moderated by the sea air.
The berries are oval in shape a bit like those of
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Solanum | laciniatum | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Solanaceae |
Solanum (Nightshades) |
Nightshade Family [Solanaceae] |