''Billardiera cymosa'', commonly known as sweet apple-berry or love fruit, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Pittosporaceae Pittosporaceae is a family of flowering plants that consists of 200–240 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in 9 genera. Habitats range from tropical to temperate climates of the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Oceanian, and Australasian r ...

and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is usually a slender climber that has narrowly egg-shaped leaves and pale blue or pale purplish flowers arranged in groups of about five to twelve.

Description

''Billardiera cymosa'' is usually a slender climber or twiner that has its new shoots softly-hairy, later

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

and reddish-brown. The adult leaves are arranged alternately, narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly elliptic or almost linear, long and wide on a short

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

. The flowers are arranged in

corymb Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...

s of about five to twelve with softly-hairy

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s and bracteoles but that fall off as the flowers open. The

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s are yellowish-green or brown, lance-shaped, long and the petals pale blue or pale purplish and long, forming a tube with spreading lobes. Flowering occurs from October to January and the mature fruit is a dark purple

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the cul ...

long containing many seeds.

Taxonomy

''Billardiera cymosa'' was first formally described in 1855 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

in ''

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume Flora of Australia published b ...

'' in ''Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''cymosa'') means "

cymose In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a main axis ( p ...

". In 2004, Lindy Cayzer,

Michael Douglas Crisp Michael Douglas Crisp (born 1950) is an emeritus professor in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University located in Canberra. In 1976, he gained a PhD from the University of Adelaide, studying long-term vegetation chan ...

and

Ian Telford Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, which is derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponds to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. This name is a popu ...

described two subspecies of ''B. cymosa'' in ''

Australian Systematic Botany ''Australian Systematic Botany'' is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published by CSIRO Publishing. It is devoted to publishing original research, and sometimes review articles, on topics related to systematic botany, such as b ...

'', and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Sys ...

: * ''Billardiera cymosa'' F.Muell. subsp. ''cymosa'' has leaves long and wide, the sepals long, and the

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

silky hairy. * ''Billardiera cymosa'' subsp. ''pseudocymosa'' (F.Muell. ex Klatt) L.W.Cayzer & Crisp, (previously known as ''Billardiera pseudocymosa'' F.Muell. ex Klatt has leaves long and wide, the sepals long, and the ovary

Distribution and habitat

Sweet apple-berry grows in mallee and eucalypt woodland in the south-east of South Australia and western Victoria. Subspecies ''cymosa'' is found on the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula, known as Guuranda by the original inhabitants, the Narungga people, is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula ...

and in the Southern Lofty and

Murray Basin The Murray Basin is a Cenozoic sedimentary basin in south eastern Australia. The basin is only shallow, but extends into New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It takes its name from the Murray River which traverses the Basin from eas ...

areas, extending into the

Wimmera The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on the social ...

region of western Victoria. Subspecies ''pseudocymosa'' mainly occurs on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Earlier called Eyre's Peninsula, it was named after e ...

but also in parts of the Eyre Peninsula with subsp. ''cymosa'', and on the northern plains of Victoria from Wyperfeld to

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q4911545, from2=Q64763272, from3=Q55823085 Bushfood cymosa Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of South Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1855