Shrub to 3 m high; stems usually slender and arching, with scattered hairs, becoming glabrous. Leaves usually opposite, ovate-lanceolate, 2–5 cm long, 0.8–2 cm wide, denticulate, glabrous but for a few marginal hairs; petiole 0.5–1.5 cm long. Flowers 1–3 in fascicles, pendulous; peduncle 2–4.5 cm long, filiform; hypanthium 7–15 mm long, pink or red; sepals lanceolate, 1.5–2.5 cm long, c. 5 mm wide, acute, pink or red; petals shorter than sepals, obovate, 10–20 mm long, 5–11 mm wide, obtuse, usually purple; stamens long-exserted, filaments slender, anthers dorsifixed; style longer than stamens, stigma 4-lobed, capitate. Berry reddish, many-seeded. Flowers Dec.–May.
GipP, OtP, HSF, OtR, Strz. Also naturalised SA, Tas., Europe, Africa, Hawaii. Native to southern South America. Reported for the Dandenong, Otway and Strzelecki Ranges where found in fern-gullies and wet sclerophyll forests, presumably as a garden-escape.
Source:
Jeanes, J.A. (1996). Onagraceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 930–942. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
