left, ''Trachymene ornata'' left, ''Trachymene ornata'' fruit ''

Trachymene '' Trachymene coerulea'' (Australian lace flower) ''Trachymene'' is a genus of herbaceous plants in the family Araliaceae. The species are native to Australia, Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the ...

ornata'', or spongefruit, is a slender annual herb in the family Araliaceae. It is native to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and found in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales.

Description

''Trachymene ornata'' is an annual herb growing up to high, which has sparsely hairy stems. The sparsely hairy leaves are deeply three-lobed almost to dissected. The inflorescence is an umbel of 3-6 flowers which are bisexual, white or blue, and observed (in NSW) from July to October. The two-carpelled fruits split into two densely woolly

mericarp A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps. There are different definitions: * Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate. : Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...

s with white (sometimes purplish) hairs.

Habitat

It grows in rocky places, and in shallow soils

Taxonomy

''Trachymene ornata'' was first described by

Stephan Endlicher Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna. Bio ...

in 1839, and redescribed by Druce in 1917 as belonging to the genus, ''

Rudge Rudge may refer to: Places *Rudge, Shropshire, England *Rudge, Somerset, England * Rugde (Kristiansand), a neighbourhood in Kristiansand, Norway People *Anne Rudge (1761–1836), English botanist *Antonietta Rudge (1885–1974), Brazilian pian ...

References

External links

The Australasian Virtual Herbarium – Occurrence data
ornata Flora of Western Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of New South Wales {{Araliaceae-stub