Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Qjurious
Type:
Info
Chapter:
3-663.66.16
Duma florulenta
Name: Muehlenbeckia florulenta.
English: Tangled lignum; Lignum.
Wiradjuri: Gweeargal.
Region: Australia.
Habitat: wetland, arid and semiarid regions, subject to cycles of intermittent flooding and drying out; highly tolerant of salinity and drought.
Botany
Perennial, monoecious shrub, 2.5 m high; multitude of thin, intertwined and tangled branches and branchlets forming dense thickets to the exclusion of other species; appears leafless, leaves are on younger growth but soon die off, especially in dry conditions; its densely tangled growth habit, it provides protected breeding habitat for native wildlife such as waterbirds, though it can also provide refuge for pest species such as feral pigs, foxes and rabbits.
Root: very deep, 3 m in depth.
Stem: grey-green; ends in a sharp point.
Leaves: thin, narrow; 15–70 mm long and 2–10 mm wide.
Flowers: small, cream to yellowish, solitary or clustered along the branchlets and occurring through most of the year.
Fruit: top-shaped, dry; ± 5 mm long.
Taxonomy
Duma florulenta was first described by Carl Meisner in 1856 as Muehlenbeckia florulenta.