More Prickly Lixy

Alyxia ruscifolia
Family: APOCYNACEAE



Since my post of last month, these plants have only become more wonderful. They always flower quite well, but this year they’re outstanding. At Gowrie Junction today my companions and I were finding the plants by following the perfume as it wafted downwind. It resembles jasmine.





The shrubs were a mass of flowers, with the orange fruits still hanging on, and this lovely plant had a good crop of lichen on it as well - a sign of a healthy environment.


(Don’t, of course, believe the rumour that lichens damage plants. They do nothing of the sort, and are so interesting and varied in themselves that their richness only adds another dimension to a garden.)
I was interested in the comment by reader Mick last month that he has some prickly lixy with black fruit, down Ipswich way. That’s a variant I haven’t heard of before.