Botanical art
Etymology
Logania,,named after James Logan (1674-1751), an Irish born botanist who emigrated to North America, became Governor of Pennsylvania and wrote a book on the sexuality of plants. Crassifolia, from the Latin 'crassus,' meaning thick and 'folium', meaning a leaf, referring to its thick ovoid leathery leaves.
Distribution and status
Endemic to South Australia and found on the southern Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas, Kangaroo Island and the southern Mount Lofty Range, growing along the coast, in coastal low open to closed heath, among rocks near beach, or sandy soils of consolidated dunes overlying limestone. Native. Common in South Australia.
Herbarium regions: Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island
NRM regions: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Northern and Yorke
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)
Plant description
Prostrate shrub to 30 cm high and 100 cm wide; dioecious with scabrous stems. Leaves broadly obovate or broadly elliptic, to 30 mm long and 30 mm wide; glabrous to minutely papillose; flat, margins thickened with scabrous stalk to 3 mm long. Inflorescence compact terminal clusters with white unisexual flowers. Flowering between August and October. Fruits are grey-brown ovoid capsule to 8 mm long and 6.5 mm wide. Seeds are shiny black barbell-shaped convex seed to 1.5 mm long and 1 mm wide, with a reticulate surface. Seed embryo type is linear, fully-developed.
Seed collection and propagation
Collect seeds between October and December. Collect maturing capsules that are fat, turning brown in colour, have not open and contain hard black seeds. Place the capsules in a tray and leave to dry for one to two weeks for it to split. Rub the capsules gently with a rubber bung to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate the unwanted material. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From one collection, the seed viability was high, at 100%.
Location | No. of seeds (weight grams) | Number of plants | Date collected | Collection number Collection location | Date stored | % Viability | Storage temperature |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BGA MSB | 12,100 (6.92 g) 12,100 (6.92 g) | 50+ | 30-Nov-2006 | TST114 Yorke Peninsula | 1-Aug-2007 | 100% | -18°C |