Gomphocarpus Physocarpus E.Mey. Family: Apocynaceae Meyer, E.H.F

Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition Gomphocarpus physocarpus E.Mey. Family: Apocynaceae Meyer, E.H.F. (1836) Commentariorum de plantis Africae Australioris 1 : 202. Type: South Africa, J. F. Drege; holo: B ? destroyed. Fide Forster (1996) Flora Australia 28: 218. Common name: Balloon Cotton Bush; Cotton Bush Stem Usually flowers and fruits as a single-stemmed shrub 1-2 m tall. Leaves Leaves rather variable, leaf blades about 5-8.5 x 0.9-1.3 cm. Stipules dark, small and inconspicuous, less than 1 mm long. Petiole grooved on the upper surface. Leaves, twigs and petioles produce a milky exudate. Flowers Inflorescences not strictly axillary, arising from the twigs beside the petioles but not in the axil of the petiole. Pedicels about 1.5-2 cm long. Flowers about 10-16 mm diam. Anthers sessile. Ovary clothed Leaves, flowers and fruit. © in glands or glandular hairs. Each flower with two free carpels but only one appears to be functional. CSIRO Fruit Seeds about 5 x 2 mm, excavated or flat on one side, testa reticulate, long white silky hairs on the margins. Cotyledons yellow-orange. Seedlings Cotyledons about 20 x 8-9 mm. First pair of leaves narrowly ovate, opposite. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves linear or narrowly elliptic, apex acute, base attenuate. All parts of the seedling produce a milky exudate. Stipules small and inconspicuous. Seed germination time 8 to 24 days. Distribution and Ecology An introduced weed originally from Africa now naturalised in NEQ, CEQ and over a wide area of Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO eastern and southern Australia. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1100 m. In NEQ grows on farmland and disturbed areas of eucalypt forest and occasionally along roads, etc. in rain forest. Natural History & Notes A poisonous plant but rarely eaten by domestic animals. Everist (1974). Synonyms Asclepias physocarpa (E.Mey.) Schltr., Beiblatt No. 54 : 8(1896). RFK Code 3428