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
One of the flowering shrubs to be seen around Alice Springs is the Sturt’s Desert Rose (Gossypium sturtianum var. sturtianum). Originally called Cienfugosia gossypioides, the Sturt’s Desert Rose is the floral emblem of the Northern Territory.
An arid zone plant, the Sturt’s Desert Rose is found growing on stony or rocky ground, in dry creek beds to up on some of the hills around Alice Springs. They are found in Central Australia, extending into the outback region of South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
The Sturt’s Desert Rose are known by other names such as Darling River Rose, Cotton Rosebush and Australian Cotton. However, here in Alice Springs, Central Australia and the Northern Territory we know this flowering shrub as the Sturt’s Desert Rose.
Mauve to pink in colour, the Sturt’s Desert Rose have dark red markings at the centre of the flower. There is a pale white variety of the Sturt’s Desert Rose (these can be seen growing in the Olive Pink Botanic Garden and the Alice Springs Desert Park.
The flowers of the desert rose are enjoyed by a number of insects from both native bees, honey bees, ants, and even spiders who ambush visiting insects.
More information in Flora section > Sturt’s Desert Rose (Gossypium sturtianum).
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Phylum: Charophyta
- Class: Equisetopsida
- Subclass: Magnoliidae
- Superorder: Rosanae
- Order: Malvales
- Family: Asteraceae
- Genus: Gossypium
- Species: Gossypium sturtianum
- Variety:
- Gossypium sturtianum var. nandewarense (Derera) Fryxell
- Gossypium sturtianum var. sturtianum J.H.Willis
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
Alice Springs FaunaAlice Springs Native Bees Alice Springs Beetles Alice Springs Birds Alice Springs Gastropods (Gastropoda) Alice Springs Insects Alice Springs Marsupials Alice Springs Reptiles Alice Springs Spiders