Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: David Lyttle on October 18, 2010, 06:48:31 AM

Title: Mystery Plant
Post by: David Lyttle on October 18, 2010, 06:48:31 AM
Can anyone tell m what this plant is? It forms quite dense mats on the forest floor
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: shelagh on October 18, 2010, 09:15:17 AM
I don't think it's going to be a Forrest Medal winner David :D
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: David Lyttle on October 18, 2010, 09:59:18 AM
I don't think it's going to be a Forrest Medal winner David :D

I am sure it is going to have a story just as interesting as all the beauties that grace the show bench. (especially as I cant identify it even to family level)
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Gail on October 18, 2010, 10:53:25 AM
The leaves look like a Glechoma.  Glechoma hederacea (ground ivy) which has bigger violet flowers is a weed here, quickly forming a carpet.
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Maggi Young on October 18, 2010, 11:19:08 AM
A strong similarity indeed, Gail..... do you think we can safely say the mystery plant will be in the Lamiaceae /Labiatae ?

I am puzzled by the strange form of the small flowers with their very exagerated bent tubes.....not something I recognise at all  ??? The corolla seems quite open, flat and round..... with no pronounced "lip" ...... odd!


 Hmmm.... another thought.... the stems do not look "square"... but round..... .... I may be barkingup the wrong family tree here!!  :-X
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: t00lie on October 18, 2010, 07:24:17 PM
Hello David

One of the NZ hydrocotyles ?

Cheers Dave ----currently in Bath UK,(unfortunately without a pair of swimming tights). ;D
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Maggi Young on October 18, 2010, 07:48:02 PM
Hydrocotyle = pennyworts... in the apiaceae /umbelliferae ? 
Structure isn't right for that. is it?

http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/media/publications-journals-nzjb-1982-017.pdf 

Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: David Lyttle on October 18, 2010, 09:39:29 PM
Hi Dave, Looking forward to catching up with you when you arrive back. It is not a Hydrocotyle.

 Gail, Maggi, I think I have been off my game a bit. After sleeping on it I am confident the mystery plant is Australina pusilla a member of the Urticaceae.
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Maggi Young on October 18, 2010, 09:54:54 PM
Never heard of it! Went for a search.... doesn't look  anything like the type shown in
this Plantnet page...
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Australina~pusilla    :-\
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Lesley Cox on October 18, 2010, 09:55:48 PM
Bristles on the leaves should have told you that David. :D Not that I could.  ::)
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: David Lyttle on October 18, 2010, 11:53:30 PM
Maggi,

Try this link http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.asp?ID=2062 (http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.asp?ID=2062)
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Maggi Young on October 19, 2010, 10:30:59 AM
Thanks, David!
Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Heather P on October 21, 2010, 07:19:51 PM

Hi, People.  I also looked it up because I never heard of it--I look up a lot of plants--and I have copied below one item I found:

"On Oct 16, 2007, kennedyh from Churchill, Victoria
Australia (Zone 10a) wrote:
This tiny little plant is quite rare in mainland Australia, being restricted to a small part of the Wilsons Promontory National Park and a small area in the Otway Ranges, both in Victoria. It is apparently much commoner in the island state of Tasmania and also in New Zealand.
I was lucky enough to see it recently while helping with a plant survey at "The Prom", although it gave me a great deal of difficulty identifying it, despite being very familiar with its larger cousin (Australina pusilla subsp.muellerina) which is quite common."

Changing the subject, which perhaps I should instead start a new post, I found a stranger in my garden that had come with the topsoil.  It turned out to be sharp leaved fluellen.  I got it to seed and grow again this summer, but is it going to be a weedy resident?  We already have scarlet pimpernel that someone introduced to the area years ago.  Cheers.  Heather P
 
 

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Title: Re: Mystery Plant
Post by: Maggi Young on October 21, 2010, 09:15:16 PM
Well, I had to look up Sharp Leaved Fluellen.... I had never heard of it!
I found this link:
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/p2/p28933.php  

I'd have thought if it were really weedy I would have heard about it.... so perhaps my ignorance is a  good sign, Heather?  ;)
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