General Description:

Eremophila is a large genus of 214 species, all endemic to Australia. They are generally plants of inland and arid areas and are popular with Australian plant enthusiasts.

Eremophila denticulata is a small to medium shrub which may reach 2.5 metres in height. The leaves are up to 60 mm long, lance-shaped or elliptical and new growth may be sticky to the touch. The flowers are initially yellowish but age to pink/red in colour. They are about 30 mm long and tubular in shape. They mainly occur in spring but sporadic flowing may occur at other times. The rounded fruits are about 10 mm in diameter.

E.denticulata is well known in cultivation and grows well in dry climates on a variety of soils which must have good drainage. It has also been successfully cultivated in humid, temperate areas. The species will tolerate at least moderate frosts and prefers full sun.

Propagation from seed of Eremophila species is unreliable. A number of treatment methods have been tried including sowing the ripe fruits, sowing of aged and washed fruits and splitting the fruits to extract the seeds prior to sowing. The latter involves splitting the fruits in halves and quarters but some seeds are inevitably damaged during the process.

E.denticulata strikes readily from cuttings of hardened, current season’s growth.

* EPBC Act = Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999;
ROTAP = Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (Briggs and Leigh, 1988)
For further information refer the Australian Plants at Risk page