Salt Pratia
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| Scientific Name: | Lobelia irrigua (syn. Pratia platycalyx) |  Salt Pratia - plant Photo: A J Brown |
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. |
 Salt Pratia - flowers Photo: A J Brown |  Salt Pratia - leaves Photo: A J Brown |  |
© The State of Victoria, 1996 - 2009.
This document was last reviewed on 05/08/2009