Eremophila undulata: fruit & flower. Photo: P.J.Lang (left) & J.Kellermann (right).

Two new native vascular plant species have just been added to the Census of South Australian Plants, Algae and Fungi. Both are eastern range extensions of species previously considered as endemic to Western Australia.

They were first recorded in the Maralinga Tjarutja Lands in the North-western Region of the State by the South Australian Seed Conservation Centre and are now supported by new occurrences discovered by State Herbarium botanists on the recent BushBlitz Great Victoria Desert Survey in September.

Eremophila undulata: habit & leaf morphology. Photo: P.J.Lang.

Eremophila undulata Chinnock was described by State Herbarium Honorary Associate Bob Chinnock in 1980 (1mb PDF) and the specific epithet refers to its distinctive undulate leaf margins.

Eremophila undulata is related to Eremophila serrulata and has similar golden-green coloured flowers, but it grows in sandy loams on plains rather than the rocky habitats more typical of the latter.

Sclerolaena eurotioides (F.Muell.) A.J.Scott is unusual in having soft filamentous processes in place of the woody spines that are present on most Sclerolaena fruit. It was found during the Bush Blitz survey on the margin of a clay pan to the south of Serpentine Lakes in Mamungari Conservation Park.

Sclerolaena eurotioides: fruit & habit. Photo: J.Kellermann.

Contributed by State Herbarium botanist Peter Lang.