Family: APHANOPETALACEAE
I visited the Cranbourne Australian Garden near Melbourne, some time ago. It impressed me because of its many suggested ways of using Australian native plants in stylish ways, for modern small gardens. It takes Australian gardening away from the informal “bush garden” style which has dominated native plant gardens.
The theme of that particular section of the Cranbourne garden was to do with getting height in a small garden, and I was intrigued with these tubular trellises. I expect that this particular vine species would fill the tube with growth, then could be kept loosely pruned to make a screen, or trimmed more closely to make neat formal columns.
As you can see from the photo is going to conceal the trellis, as the plant grows to fill it. This is quite a fast-growing plant, so it shouldn't take long.
A spring-flowering plant, it grows naturally east of the great Dividing Range from the Sunshine Coast to eastern Victoria. It can be found near Toowoomba along the eastern side of the Range, where it grows in rainforests and dry vine scrubs. Its favourite sites are rocky screes and cool gullies.
Its shiny “wet-look” foliage and masses of long-lasting, spectacular white sepals make it one of our most beautiful local native climbers for garden use.
“Aphanopetalum” is a word meaning “invisible petals”, which seems surprising at first glance - as the plant seems to be covered with perfectly visible, gleaming, white ones. Closer examination shows you, however, that these are not petals, but sepals.
It is the beautiful sepals which catch our attention, but if you turn one up to face you, you can see the tiny flowers, complete with four very small petals, which they conceal. (Double click on the photo for a closer look.)
The sepals continue to ornament the bush as the flowers die and the fruits develop, creating the impression of a very long flowering season.
The leaves have tiny teeth on their margins, and the stems are covered with raised “lenticels” (little bumps) which make them rough to the touch.
If planted in a position where it has nothing to climb on, gum vine grows as a dense, spreading shrub or deep groundcover, but given something to climb it twines upwards, and can make a good privacy screen. It thrives on heavy pruning. It needs a bit of discipline to restrict it to a trellis or fence, as it has a natural tendency to get quite wide.
It can cope with very heavy shade (making it suitable for use indoors, or as a patio plant in a hanging basket). For good flowering, however, it prefers a little sunshine each day. It grows naturally on the rocky screes and stream banks on our eastern escarpment, where it can have its preferred cool, well-shaded root-run. It is claimed to be frost hardy, and thrive in a sheltered Toowoomba garden but I would not trust it to survive in areas which get hard frosts.
Like all rainforest plants, it likes a rich soil full of compost, and a good mulch. Well-watered, it grows very rapidly - yet it also grows in our local dry rainforests and scrubs, tolerating a degree of drought. Leave it alone and it can survive and look attractive without any watering at all.
