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Rounded Noon-Flower photos |
Scientific Name: | Disphyma crassifolium subsp. clavellatum | Rounded Noon-flower - red leaves Photo: A J Brown | |||||
Other Common Name: | Round-Leaf Pigface | ||||||
Status: | Native to Australia. | ||||||
Plant Description: | Perennial succulent with smooth, more or less cylindrical leaves (or leaves with three flattened but convex faces and rounded angles between) growing in clusters or opposite pairs on a horizontal creeping stem that roots at the nodes. Leaves often have a reddish or yellowish tinge and are 2-5 cm long and 4-6 mm thick with a pointed tip. Flowers are pink or purple with numerous linear petals and are about 3 cm diameter when open. Flowers close at night and open again in late morning. The fruit is a red to light brown dehiscent capsule with 5 membranous flaps which open at the top when ripe. Flowers in spring and summer. | ||||||
Habitat: | Grows in a wide range of soils and plant communities but especially in saline depressions and on alluvial clays in north-west Victoria and on the fringes of saltmarsh and cliffs along the coast.
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Comments: | Drought and frost resistant. The leaves accumulate salt and are not often grazed by livestock. Can be useful in preventing soil erosion. On inland sites, Rounded Noon-flower oftens grows in association with Common Ice Plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) and or Small Ice Plant (Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum) but it lacks the warty nodules/glands of the Ice Plants. Similar to the Pigfaces (Carpobrotus spp.) but the leaves of these are sharply angled between the flat or slightly convex faces and the fruit is fleshy and indehiscent (see Key to Pigfaces and similar plants). Inland Pigface (Carpobrotus modestus) generally grows on shallow, rocky and dry soils across the west of Victoria. Other species of Pigface (Carpobrotus spp.) are largely confined to coastal dunes, cliffs and saltmarshes. |
Rounded Noon-flower - at the end of the growing season Photo: A J Brown | Rounded Noon-flower Ex Matters & Bozon |
Rounded Noon-flower - leaves Photo: A J Brown | Rounded Noon-flower - Fruit Photo: A J Brown |
Rounded Noon-flower -fruit and seed Photo: A J Brown | Rounded Noon-flower - emerging seedlings Photo: A J Brown |
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