A cosmopolitan family of about 4000 species, mostly herbs, though a few are small shrubs, climbers or trees. Some of the species are semi-parasitic on the roots of other plants. Western Australia has 52 native and 20 naturalised species. Many members of the family are highly ornamental and are planted in gardens. Asarina barclaiana (was Maurandya barclaiana)is an annual or short-lived perennial climber with bright green, arrow-shaped leaves whose stalks twine around a support. The trumpet-shaped mauve flowers are produced during summer. A garden escape on Garden Island, it sets seed freely and is likely to naturalise elsewhere. Native to Mexico.
Asarina
barclaiana, GK
Bartsia trixago(white bartsia) is an upright, glandular-hairy annual to 50cm, semi-parasitic on the roots of surrounding vegetation. It has toothed, ovate, hairy leaves and short, dense flowering spikes of white or purple-tinged flowers produced in spring. Grows on roadsides, in bushland and winter wet areas, occasionally among crops and pastures, from Geraldton to Albany, and can be abundant in some sites. Native to the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Bartsia
trixago, RR
Cymbalaria muralis(ivy-leaved toadflax) is a small, slender, creeping or trailing perennial, with five-lobed leaves and, in spring, lilac flowers with a yellow patch on the lower lip. It prefers calcareous soils, and has escaped from gardens onto the limestone foundations of buildings in Perth and onto cliffs along the Swan River. Native to the Mediterranean.
Dischisma are prostrate annual herbs from South Africa, flowering in spring. They have linear leaves and the minute flowers are produced in cylindrical spikes. D. arenarium prefers calcareous sandy soils and is widespread in coastal sites from Jurien to Esperance. It is a slender plant with a loose cylindrical flowering spike that becomes denser as the fruit matures. Below each flower in the spike is a bract, that projects slightly as a green point. D. capitatum grows further inland than the previous species, on sandy or peaty soils and is found in sandy pasture paddocks and along roadsides, firebreaks and other disturbed areas from Geraldton to Albany It has stiff, more or less horizontal branches sprawling out to 30cm. The branches turn up to display the flower spike, which is often more than 1cm thick. The bracts below each flower project out about 1cm.
Dischisma
arenarium , RR
Kickxia(fluellens)are prostrate, grey-hairy annuals with trailing stems and small flowers with a violet upper lip and a yellow lower one. There are two species in Western Australia, although plants within a population often show a mixture of characteristics. K. elatine(sharp-leaved fluellen, pointed toadflax)has leaves that are arrow-head shaped and the flowers have a long, straight spur.
Kickxia
elatine, PH
K. spuria(fluellen, roundleaf toadflax)has leaves that are broad and the spur is curved forward. Both flower in summer and grow in disturbed sites such as roadsides throughout the south-west. Both native to Europe.
Lindernia
crustaceais
a small annual herb to 5cm tall, rooting at the nodes. Mauve
flowers are produced during March and April, on slender
stalks in the axils of the opposite, heart-shaped leaves. A
localised lawn weed at the Port Hotel, Wyndham, and the
Cable Beach Club, Broome;
it may be more widespread. Native to India and
China.
K. spuria, RR
Misopates orontium(lesser snapdragon)is an erect, glandular-hairy annual to 50cm with linear leaves. The pink flowers are produced in spring. Found around Perth and in the Avon Valley, on roadsides and other disturbed areas but also among granite rocks. Native to western Asia.
Misopates
orontium, PH
