Eustrephus latifolius.
Family Asparagaceae > Subfamily Lomandroideae.
Wombat berry or Orange vine is the only species in the genus.
Still seen in N.S.W. in Philesiaceae it has also been in Laxmanniaceae, Luzuriagaceae and Smilaceae.
It is native to coastal eastern Australia, New Guinea and Pacific islands.
With zigzag stems up to 6 m long they twine up other vegetation.
They will also scramble over vegetation or along the ground.
The 2 mm thick stems branch a lot.
It has a white taproot and tubers up to 3 cm long on the roots.
The alternately arranged leaves are in 2 ranks (distichous).
They can be dense or few depending on the surroundings.
On a petiole 1 mm long they are linear, lance-shaped, elliptic or ovate.
Up to 10 cm long the width varies from 3 mm to 3.5 cm.
The difference in width led to numerous names that are all now synonyms.
The 2 terminal leaves are so close they appear to be opposite.
Leaf tips are pointed, bases rounded or wedge shaped.
The around 10 parallel longitudinal veins are prominent on both sides.
Inflorescences are a small cluster of axillary flowers towards the stem ends.
The tip has more flowers but is the 2 close terminal axillary ones combined.
Flowers are on a stalk from 1 to 2.5 cm long.
The line of separation divides it into a longer peduncle and shorter pedicel.
(The line has cells with weak walls and allows the dead flowers to fall easily.)
The bisexual flowers have 2 whorls of 3 tepals (or sepals and petals).
The free ovate to elliptic tepals are all 6 to 8 mm long.
The sepal-like tepals are smooth.
Petal-like tepals have long glistening hairs along the inner edges.
The segments open to a star shape 1.5 cm across.
The deciduous tepals are white or pale pink to mauve.
The 6 stamens form a tube around the ovary and style base.
The wide flat filaments are fused and the sides of the 4 mm anthers just touch.
Anthers open through an apical pore that extends down into a long slit.
The 2 mm ovoid superior ovary has an apical style 3 mm long.
The stigma, with papillae extends past the anthers.
The roughly spherical fruit ripen from green to yellow then bright orange.
They are a 3-lobed loculicidal capsule that splits into the 3 chambers.
The 1 to 2 cm fruit have a thin fleshy layer around the numerous seeds.
After opening, the capsule and the 5 to 6 mm seeds remains on the vine.
Flowers and fruit can be seen at the same time.
The few to nearly 20 glossy black seeds have a large white aril.
(The aril is a fleshy thickening of the seed coat near the point of attachment to the placenta.)
Superficially similar to Geitonoplesium cymosum but this has wider leaves, smooth petals and black fruit.
J.F.
