Alice Springs Desert Park
Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House
Myoporum acuminatum is a shrub or small tree up to 13 m tall. The leaves alternating up the stems, are about 5-14 cm long, 7-28 mm wide, hairless, with long pointed tips.
The flowers are tubular, with 5 lobes, white with purple spots inside, in groups of 3-8 at the bases of the leaves. The fruit is purplish black.
Commonly known as Boobialla, Pointed Boobialla, Mangrove Boobialla and Waterbush. It is endemic to eastern Australia, found growing in rainforest or wet eucalyptus forest and occasionally associated with mangroves.
In the Northern Territory Government, Department of Land Resources Management document (link below in the footnote and references), Myoporum acuminatum is listed as a shrub under the “On The Plains” section with an asterisk, indicating that it is not native to Central Australia (refer to NT Government Native Grasses & Plants of Arid and Semi-arid Regions).1
Myoporum acuminatum
Arrernte name: Tywerrke tywerrke
Pronounced: CHOOR~ka~choor~ka
Boobialla fruits are a favourite food of bowerbirds and mistletoebirds.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Phylum: Charophyta
- Class: Equisetopsida
- Subclass: Magnoliidae
- Superorder: Asteranae
- Order: Lamiales
- Family: Scrophulariaceae
- Genus: Myoporum
- Species: Myoporum acuminatum
Footnote & References
- Native Grasses & Plants of Arid and Semi-arid Regions, Technical Note No. 13, Northern Territory Government, https://nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/212257/native-grasses-plants.pdf
- Myoporum acuminatum R.Br., Coastal Boobialla, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/7956805
ASDP FloraFlora Index Batswing Coral Tree Blue Mallee Bush Banana Buttercup Pigweed Dead Finish Desert Grevillea Desert Oak Desert Raisin Field Lily Georges Indigo Golden Everlasting Honey Grevillea Kangaroo Grass Lamarchea sulcata Myoporum acuminatum (Boobialla) Native Apricot Native Bluebell Native Cotton Bush Native Tomato Nicotiana megalosiphon subsp sessilifolia Olearia ferresii Parrot Pea Pink Everlasting Poached Egg Daisy Potato Vine Quandong Rattlepod Grevillea Red-bud Mallee Red Mulga Resurrection Fern Rough Halgania Sandover Lily Silkyheads Small Yellow Button (Chrysocephalum apiculatum) Spearwood Bush Sturt’s Desert Pea Waddy-wood Walukara Weeping Spinifex White Spider Flower Wild Passionfruit Wildflower Display
Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House