Plants of
South Australia
Wahlenbergia littoricola
Campanulaceae
Edge Bluebell,
Coast Bluebell
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Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
Least concern
Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
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Extinct
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Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
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Keith
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Botanical art

Kath Alcock paintings: 2

Prior names

Wahlenbergia litticola, orth.var.(orig.)

Common names

Edge Bluebell

Coast Bluebell

Etymology

Wahlenbergia named by H.A Schrader in honour of Georg Göran Wahlenberg (1780-1851), a Swedish professor of botany. Littoricola from Latin 'littoris' meaning shore and 'cola' meaning dwelling; alluding to the species habitat near the coast.

Distribution and status

Found in the southern part of South Australia except on Kangaroo Island, growing in open forests, grasslands and heath. Also found in Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. Native. Common in South Australia. Uncommon in Western Australia and Queensland. Common in the other states.
Herbarium regions: Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, South Eastern, Green Adelaide
NRM regions: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern and Yorke, South Australian Murray-Darling Basin, South East
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Perennial herb to 80cm tall. Leaves alternating up the stems or sometimes the lowermost leaves opposite each other, to 6 cm long and 4mm wide, linear or the lowermost leaves flat, lower leaves hairy, upper leaves hairless, margins flat or wavy, entire or toothed. Flowers terminal, blue, funnel-shaped with 5 overlaying lobes. Flowers most of the year. Fruits are brown capsule. Seeds are tiny orange-brown elliptic seed to 0.6 mm long and 0.3 mm wide. Seed embryo type is spatulate under-developed.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between January and December. Collect capsules that are maturing, drying and turning brown with brown seeds inside. Place the capsules in a tray and leave to dry for a week. Then rub the capsules gently with your hands to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate the unwanted material. Be careful as the seeds are very small. 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%.

Seeds stored:
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LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
BGA 
MSB
11,050 (0.31 g)
11,050 (0.31 g)
501-Dec-2006RJB70485
Southern Lofty
1-Aug-2007100%-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.