Plants of
South Australia
Tetragonia implexicoma
Aizoaceae
Bower Spinach
Display all 13 images
Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
Least concern
Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
Endangered
Critically endangered
Extinct
Data deficient
Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
Mount Gambier
Oodnadatta
Renmark
Wudinna
Keith
Yunta
Enlarge Map
Copy Map
Copy Map
Display IBRA region text

Botanical art

Kath Alcock paintings: 6

Prior names

Trianthema turgidifolia

Trianthema maidenii

Tetragonia amplexicoma

Tetragonella implexicoma

Etymology

Tetragonia from the Greek 'tetra' meaning four and 'gonia' meaning angle; alluding to the 4-angled fruit of some species. Implexicoma from the Latin 'implexus' meaning intertwined and 'kome' meaning hair; alluding to the hairs on the plant.

Distribution and status

Found along the coast of South Australia. Also found in Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. Native. Common in South Australia. Common in the other states.
Herbarium regions: Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South Eastern, Green Adelaide
NRM regions: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Northern and Yorke, South Australian Murray-Darling Basin, South East
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Prostrate undershrub or the tomentose stems or branches climbing on adjoining shrubs. Leaves thick, warty, ovate or lanceolate to almost linear, often clustered, to 4 cm long. Flowers on usually slender peduncles to 20 mm long and often hairy. Flowers yellow inside, glabrous or hairy outside. Flowers throughout the year. Fruits are depressed-globular orange or red fleshy fruit to 5 mm diameter, turning blackish when matured, crowned by the persistent perianth lobes. Seeds are pale brown woody, three sided seed to 4 mm long and 4.2 mm wide. Seed embryo type is peripheral.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between January and December. Collect fruits that are maturing, turning orange, red or black and contain a hard woody seed inside. Place the berries in a bucket of water and rub the flesh off with your hands. Drain the water and wash again if required to remove all the flesh. Then spread the wet seeds on some paper towel and leave to dry. 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%. This species has physical dormancy that needs to be overcome for the seed to germinate.

Seeds stored:
  Hide
LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
 
MSB

1,000 (18.36 g)
50-6015-Nov-2005MKJ135
Southern Lofty
BGA 
MSB
1,000 (17.45 g)
1,000 (17.45 g)
402-Dec-2005DJD276
South Eastern
28-Jul-2006100%-18°C
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.