Family: ACANTHACEAE
These flowers are looking lovely on the roadsides at Ravensbourne at the moment.
One of the few native wildflowers to have found a place in Australian gardens, love flowers are grown for their pretty little rabbit-eared flowers and their dark green, purple-backed leaves.
They grow from tough creeping rhizomes, spreading through shady corners of the garden wherever they find enough moisture to survive
The flower colour varies. In our district, we find blue flowers in rainforests on the edge of the Range, pink in the Crows Nest area, and white flowers west of the Range where the climate is a little drier. In gardens where the plants with coloured flowers might fade away in dry seasons, it is well worth replacing them with the drought hardy white-flowered form.
Love flower plants are hosts to a number of butterfly species including these lovely varied eggflies (Hypolimnas bolina) - the male with the white moons on its wings and the female with the orange markings.
I inadvertently acquired this beauty via some potted plants that I received from a friend. Only realised that it was there after planting out, and now it is gently making its way through our garden. It is a hidden gem, coming up in different colour varieties; it is gently spreading, but not agressively invasive, and it colonises the shady niches below larger shrubs. Very pretty, and definitely here to stay !
ReplyDeleteYes, they are good value.
ReplyDeleteTrish