whorled eremophila  |  

The whorled eremophila is a small shrub to 1 m high and 80 cm across. Its erect or spreading
branches are nearly cylindrical in cross-section. The lower section of the branches may be bare
of leaves on mature plants. The leaves are fleshy, stalkless, green to purplish, in whorls of 3 and
are pressed against the branches. They are a narrow oblong in shape, 2.5 – 6 cm long by 1 mm
wide. The flowers are tubular, violet and have a white interior with purple spots. The outside of
the corolla is covered with soft hairs. The fruits are dry, egg-shaped, 2 – 3 mm long by 1 to
2.5 mm wide, beaked, slightly separated at the apex and covered with feather-like hairs (Brown
et al., 1998 in Pillimore & Brown 2003).
The whorled eremophila is closely related to E. ternifolia but differs in its smaller, narrower,
appressed leaves and different shaped fruit, in which the carpels are neither unequal or free in
the upper half (Chinnock 1986 in Pillimore & Brown 2003).