''Lobelia purpurascens'', commonly known as white root or purplish pratia, is a flowering plant in the family

Campanulaceae The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belo ...

of eastern Australia. It is a small herbaceous, scrambling plant with white to pale pink flowers.

Description

''Lobelia purpurascens'' is a small, smooth herb usually less than high with ascending or more or less prostrate stems, usually long with white rhizomes. The leaves are arranged alternately, more or less

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, elliptic to oval shaped, long and wide, margins toothed and the undersurface usually purplish coloured on a petiole up to long. The single flowers are borne in leaf axils on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long, corolla pale mauve-pink, bluish or white, long, lower petals oblong-rounded, upper petals upright, tapering to a point, curved inward and smaller than upper petals. Flowering occurs from November to May and the fruit long, wide and smooth.

Taxonomy and naming

''Lobelia purpurascens'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in ''Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae Van-Diemen, exhibens characteres plantarum quas annis 1802-1805''. The specific epithet (''purpurascens'') means "purplish".

Distribution and habitat

White root grows mostly in shady, moist situations in woodland and grasslands in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15601626, from2=Q7238677 Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland purpurascens Asterales of Australia