Salt Pratia

Other Common Name:

Fleshy Pratia

Status:

Native to South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.

Plant Description:

Small, thick and shiny leaved, creeping herb with zig-zag stems that root at the nodes. Leaves are linear to ovate or almost round, 2-40 mm long and 1-8 mm wide and sometimes toothed on the margins. Small, 5-petalled, star-like flowers are 1.8-4.5 mm long, white or mauve-tinged on the back of the lobes and tube; the corolla lobes slightly offset from being evenly distributed around the centre. Fruit is ovoid to ellipsoid, containing light brown seed, 0.7-0.9 mm long. Flowering from spring to autumn.

Habitat:

Occurs on heavy, damp soils in coastal and inland saltmarsh and slightly brackish to subsaline wetlands and grasslands and along watercourses.

Comments:

A number of other Lobelia species (e.g. L. concolor – Poison Pratia and L. pedunculata – Matted Pratia) grow on wet, muddy sites in Victoria but do not usually encroach on saline environments.