Alice Springs Flora •
Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Apple Bush Bougainvillea Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander
Thought to be a Eremophila nivea (possible hybrid), and is known as Silky Eremophila, as well as emu bush (although that is a generic term for a number of Eremophila species). This species is increasingly rare in the wild (being endemic to Western Australia), but now widely propagated.
It has become a popular ornamental shrub with purple violet flowers and soft white grey hairy covering on the branches and leaves. The shrub pictured here is from the garden at the Women’s Museum of Australia in Alice Springs.
Eremophila is from the Greek, eremos, desert and -phila loving (desert-loving).
nivea is from the Latin niveus, of the snow or snow white, and refers to the overall appearance of the shrub.
Like all in the Eremophila genus, the flowers are popular with insects, especially the introduced Apis mellifera (European Honey Bee).
Check out our Flora > Eremophila > Eremophila nivea
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Phylum: Charophyta
- Class: Equisetopsida
- Subclass: Magnoliidae
- Superorder: Asteranae
- Order: Lamiales
- Family: Scrophulariaceae
- Genus: Eremophila
- Species: Eremophila nivea
- Unranked: Eremophila ‘BERYLS BLUE’
- Unranked: Eremophila nivea ‘BLUE VELVET’
Footnote & References
- Many thanks to Karlee Foster for ID, member of Alice Springs Field Naturalists Club, Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1379683398719247
- Eremophila nivea, Australian Native Plants Society (Australia), https://anpsa.org.au/plant_profiles/eremophila-nivea/
- Eremophila nivea Chinnock, Silky Eremophila, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2890894
Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Apple Bush Bougainvillea Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander
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