Little Noon-flower

Little Noon-flower photos

Family: Pigface (Aizoaceae)

Scientific Name:

Lampranthus tegens

Flower of garden Lampranthas sp.
Photo: A J Brown

Status:

Native to South Africa.

Plant Description:

Trailing to erect perennials which root at stem nodes. Branches and leaves are often red-dotted. Leaves are circular to triangular in cross-section, linear or slightly incurved at the apex, 1-2 cm long and 1-3 mm wide and often glaucous (blue-green with a whitish bloom).

Flowers are at the ends of stems and have 5 bracts (sepals) about 4 mm long and much shorter than the pink to purple narrow (1 mm) staminodes (petal-like sterile stamens). Fruit is a capsule with 5 parts and partly covered by an elastic membrane.

Habitat:

Naturalised in New South Wales and Victoria where only known from the shores of Port Phillip Bay and growing in saltmarsh. However, Lampranthus species are widely grown garden plants and escapees may occur.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Western, Gippsland	S0, S1, S2, S3	W0, W1, W2, W3

*confined to Port Phillip Bay coast but also garden grown

Comments:

Lampranthus is a large genus with about 180 species, a number of which are garden plants, including Trailing Ice Plant (L. spectabilis) and Golden Ice Plant (L. aureus). Species naturalised in other States include Creeping Redflush (L. multiradiatus) in New South Wales and Yellow Ice Plant (L. glaucus) in Western Australia. For Pigfaces naturalised in Victoria, see Key to Pigfaces and similar plants.

Little Noon-flower Photos

Flower of garden Lampranthas sp. Photo: A J Brown	Red flowering buds of garden form of garden Lampranthas sp Photo: A J Brown
Garden Lampranthas sp leaves	Stem and leaf pair of garden Lampranthas sp Photo: A J Brown
Fruit of garden Lampranthas sp	Red flower form of Lampranthus sp. Photo: A J Brown

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